The
banker was all congeniality and help. This had been a good customer for many
years. His ‘savings account’ always had a reasonable sum of money flowing in
and out. The income came from known sources of effort and investment. His
father and brother, too, were known to be good customers and gentle people. His
mother kept a good home and laid a welcome table.
The customer
had now come asking for a loan. The banker was all congeniality and help.
Details and procedures were taken care of in a manner reserved for good clients.
It was not even really thought necessary to delve into how actually the money
was to be spent; there was confidence in his intentions. The papers were drawn
according to what his business and property allowed to be given to him. The
business books had an entry called ‘goodwill’.
That is
what The Bank wants. A reasonable flow of kindness, compassion, prayers,
helpfulness, care, dependability, fairness, humility, magnanimity, love, truth,
wonder, gratitude, benevolence; all adding up to a balance called goodwill that
inspires faith.
An
accountant tries to represent this goodwill in figures or monetary amounts. It
serves his purpose related to business affairs.
But there
is a bigger business which we are all involved in; the business of being, of
living, of existing here and now, of passing through this moment and the one
yet to come. Goodwill is the most important balance in The Bank. It is an
accumulation of the thanks, good wishes, prayers, blessings and love of every
little child; of every person who has ever been touched by the remotest of
connections in the most irrelevant or bizarre of contexts; of the most humble
of people; of the pet at home; of the beggar by the road; of the god in the
temple; of the flower in the garden. The flow is fulfilled by giving in equal
or greater measure to what one has received, and the savings account of
goodwill inspires faith.
Then
comes the fateful day in every life where one must overdraw upon the reserves
of balance in the account.
The
Banker is all congeniality and help. This had been a good customer….
