Satisfied Minds and Franciscan Stigmata Starter Kits

How many times have you heard someone say
If I had his money, I’d do things my way
But the little they know that
It’s so hard to find
One rich man in a hundred
With a satisfied mind

Interesting how some music sticks with you. I heard this song, Satisfied Mind, for the first time in Jr. High by a small folk group. It’s their version that’s still my favorite. Then and now, I listen to it and it makes me think.

For a college kid trying to move to Philly to do an unpaid internship, money doesn’t always seem like that bad of a thing to have. I don’t want to get stuck by it, but I don’t want to get stuck without it, either.

I wonder if this is as easy as it’s going to get, as far as life stages go with friendliness to “living simply” and being Franciscan…y. As far as my age group goes, we don’t have as much capital, and we don’t have as many responsibilities. No house to own. No kids – and their educations – to think about. Life is still adventure-mode, so we’re free to live simply.

Of course, there’s our own college loans. There’s that ever-nagging question of just what you’re going to be when you grow up. And there’s the desire to be cool and grown-up and responsible, but also hip and, just maybe, hipster, even when it means buying thrift store-looking clothes at non-thrift store prices.

Monkrock.com has this “Franciscan Stigmata Starter Kid,” complete with a trendy t-shirt, a crucifix necklace, a pamphlet and those little pin buttons. It’s good advertising: “Get into the Habit.” It looks cool. But that wasn’t St. Francis’ habit, and those weren’t his stigmatas – nor Christ’s. St. Francis was a styling young man of the town who spent all his money on friends and parties before his conversion. When he changed, his habit changed to that dull, brown robe. Of course, not everybody is St. Francis. The tagline of the site is true – “you don’t have to be a monk to live like one.” But, a change of clothes isn’t going to get me into the habits I want to have.

I don’t know exactly how to get into those habits. Or how not to be the person who says “if I had their money,” or how to do things my own way, or God’s way, or how to even know which is what and how’s the difference. But I’m hoping this isn’t as easy as it gets. After all, we’re still learning the ropes of living simply, whether for a brown habit or a hemp bracelet. And maybe we get to have a satisfied mind just in the trying. At least, sometimes. That’d be nice.