“There is one who gives away freely and prospers more! There is one who holds back more than is right, but still lacks. The soul that blesses will have abundance! In watering others, he waters himself abundantly.”

– King Solomon Ben David, Proverbs 11:24-25

My friend Freyda Black sent me a story  about a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Don’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

This illustrates beautifully the proverb attributed to King Solomon. When we try to hold on too tightly to what we’ve got, we risk losing it; when we share generously with others, it comes back to us multiplied. This is as true in economics as it is in karma. Taking care of each other, of the common good, prospers the human communities of which we are part.

When Henry Ford doubled his workers daily wages, he help create a prosperous middle class that could afford to buy his cars! “We increased the buying power of our own people, and they increased the buying power of other people, and so on and on,” Ford wrote. “It is this thought of enlarging buying power by paying high wages and selling at low prices that is behind the prosperity of this country.”

Intersting to think of this,  as the movement toward a $15 minimum wage gathers momentum. How much do we cost ourselves by holding too much back? How much can we gain by giving freely?

How can you trust in natural abundance and give freely to day?

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Solomon, also called Jedidiah, was, according to the Bible, Qur’an, and Hidden Words, a fabulously wealthy and wise king of Israel and a son of David. The conventional dates of Solomon’s reign are circa 970 to 931 BCE. He is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, which would break apart into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah shortly after his death. Both the Talmud and the Quran consider him a prophet. Solomon is traditionally considered the author of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, and the later apocryphal book the Wisdom of Solomon.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.