BANKING THE BALANCE

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….