This week I attended a reading in which the symbolic value of bread and gold was discussed. I connected it almost immediately to the discussion with my co-blogger Robert (see comments to my second hospitality posting, starting with the etching by Rembrandt). Genuine hospitality is the hospitality appraised in so many tales and poems, in which:
- poor people offer the little they have, to strangers
- rich people humiliate themselves in helping poor and unimportant people
Poverty, need and soberness go together with bread, wealth, importance and luck with gold.
In these tales (see e.g. the Lady of Stavoren) respect for soberness and the value of bread is the real, genuine gold, whereas respect for “only” wealth and the value of gold is strongly disapproved. So you can compare the sober reception of guests in a monastery or poor people’s home with the value of “bread”, and the awe and impression experienced when treated as a VIP in a 5-star hotel with the value of “gold”.
The story of the Exodus in the Bible is fascinating because of the symbolic clues it gives to the values of bread and gold. Bread is what God’s people really need: it is given to them by the Lord, it only serves to feed, it is tasty and enjoyable, but perishable and not storable. Gold is what they, the ungrateful people, give to a fake god, the golden calf. After the manna, the heavenly bread, that God gave to His people, the golden calf was destroyed and Moses ordered that the people should drink its ashes, strewn over water (punishment and compensation) – please don’t bother about the question how gold can turn into ash after burning it - . God demanded that 3,000 of His people were killed because of this idolatry. After so much infidelity, He demanded a contract between Him and His people, and a precious arch was built for Him as His residence. Apparently they took much gold with them at their flight from Egypt, because enough gold could be collected to build a worthy arch, with the two famous golden angels on top of it.
Here we see how gold is something that is, contrary to bread, not perishable, not to be eaten, and to be given to those who are worth it, as an indication of dignity. Of course, if anybody deserves it, it’s God Himself.
Why are bread and gold so often linked together in poetry and tales? And not only in poetry and tales, but also in economy and warfare? Machiavelli said: “Men, steel, money, and bread are the sinews of war, but of these four, the first two are more important, because men and steel find gold and bread, but bread and gold do not find men and steel.” And the 18-century, also Italian, economist Ferndinando Galiani was also aware of the law of diminishing marginal utility. When somebody stated that a living calf is both nobler and cheaper than a golden calf, and that a pound of bread is more useful than a pound of gold, Galiani replied that "useful" and "less useful" are relative concepts, and depend on individual circumstances. For someone who is in need of both gold and bread, bread is more useful. Choosing gold over bread in this case would lead to starvation. But once the individual has eaten his fill of bread, gold would be chosen over more bread. (cited from here).
This makes clear that gold is something, once you tasted it, you never can have enough of. It is something very desirable, after you filled your stomach with bread.
In Roman Catholic celebrations of Christs’ sacrifice Christs’body Itself is transformed not into gold, but into bread, as the gift of God to the people. Bread is something given by God, gold is something that must be given to God, if we want to give Him something concrete and tangible.
Bread, wheat and gold are also very similar in colour. Gold raises the emotion of observing something beautiful and enduring. It is a “noble” metal, which never allies itself to other elements, no other element is worth to “marry” to it, one of the reasons it is used for wedding-rings. Grain and bread are also considered noble. My parents, who survived the famine winter, got furious when they noticed that I had thrown away a sandwich. I felt if it were a potato or a fruit, their anger wouldn’t be that big. Now that I write this, the comparison emerges in my mind between the loaves falling from the air after World War 2 on Holland, dropped by American planes, and the manna snowed from the air for the Israelites.
- poor people offer the little they have, to strangers
- rich people humiliate themselves in helping poor and unimportant people
Poverty, need and soberness go together with bread, wealth, importance and luck with gold.
In these tales (see e.g. the Lady of Stavoren) respect for soberness and the value of bread is the real, genuine gold, whereas respect for “only” wealth and the value of gold is strongly disapproved. So you can compare the sober reception of guests in a monastery or poor people’s home with the value of “bread”, and the awe and impression experienced when treated as a VIP in a 5-star hotel with the value of “gold”.
The story of the Exodus in the Bible is fascinating because of the symbolic clues it gives to the values of bread and gold. Bread is what God’s people really need: it is given to them by the Lord, it only serves to feed, it is tasty and enjoyable, but perishable and not storable. Gold is what they, the ungrateful people, give to a fake god, the golden calf. After the manna, the heavenly bread, that God gave to His people, the golden calf was destroyed and Moses ordered that the people should drink its ashes, strewn over water (punishment and compensation) – please don’t bother about the question how gold can turn into ash after burning it - . God demanded that 3,000 of His people were killed because of this idolatry. After so much infidelity, He demanded a contract between Him and His people, and a precious arch was built for Him as His residence. Apparently they took much gold with them at their flight from Egypt, because enough gold could be collected to build a worthy arch, with the two famous golden angels on top of it.
Here we see how gold is something that is, contrary to bread, not perishable, not to be eaten, and to be given to those who are worth it, as an indication of dignity. Of course, if anybody deserves it, it’s God Himself.
Why are bread and gold so often linked together in poetry and tales? And not only in poetry and tales, but also in economy and warfare? Machiavelli said: “Men, steel, money, and bread are the sinews of war, but of these four, the first two are more important, because men and steel find gold and bread, but bread and gold do not find men and steel.” And the 18-century, also Italian, economist Ferndinando Galiani was also aware of the law of diminishing marginal utility. When somebody stated that a living calf is both nobler and cheaper than a golden calf, and that a pound of bread is more useful than a pound of gold, Galiani replied that "useful" and "less useful" are relative concepts, and depend on individual circumstances. For someone who is in need of both gold and bread, bread is more useful. Choosing gold over bread in this case would lead to starvation. But once the individual has eaten his fill of bread, gold would be chosen over more bread. (cited from here).
This makes clear that gold is something, once you tasted it, you never can have enough of. It is something very desirable, after you filled your stomach with bread.
In Roman Catholic celebrations of Christs’ sacrifice Christs’body Itself is transformed not into gold, but into bread, as the gift of God to the people. Bread is something given by God, gold is something that must be given to God, if we want to give Him something concrete and tangible.
Bread, wheat and gold are also very similar in colour. Gold raises the emotion of observing something beautiful and enduring. It is a “noble” metal, which never allies itself to other elements, no other element is worth to “marry” to it, one of the reasons it is used for wedding-rings. Grain and bread are also considered noble. My parents, who survived the famine winter, got furious when they noticed that I had thrown away a sandwich. I felt if it were a potato or a fruit, their anger wouldn’t be that big. Now that I write this, the comparison emerges in my mind between the loaves falling from the air after World War 2 on Holland, dropped by American planes, and the manna snowed from the air for the Israelites.
Maybe, from a psychological view, we can consider the relationship between bread and gold symbolising the relationship between man and God. Both precious, both having each other's appearance (as God created man according to His own image), but gold eternal and shining, and bread perishable and rude. Men who strive for gold, despising bread, although having plenty of it, will be punished, if not worse.
The problem is that we humans in cannot get satisfied with gold, and that for modern people gold is becoming more and more something that you need to acquire bread, instead of the other way around. Gold is devaluating more and more, even the supplies in Fort Knox are devaluating, and one can ask how much they are worth above the mere market value of gold, I think they lost all symbolic value gold has had in the past.
Economics study in a rational way human behaviour in exchange- situations. It doesn’t assess moral conduct, it simply observes how “gold” (“money”) is strived for as something we all want to have, more, far more, than we need, just (and this is becoming more and more the case) to ensure that as many people as possible will have bread. Apparently everybody wants to be a little god, showing his importance to everybody who can notice it. Success in life is measured in the possession of gold. As I read a long time ago (but I still remember it, but forgot place and author):
- yes, I think I do something useful in my life, I feel I contribute something;
- but why aren’t you rich, then?
Greed is the simple engine of a people’s wellbeing, it seems. I hope I’m wrong, and I am at least partially wrong. Because we use gold, as said, as a gift to what we find worthwhile. Like Machiavelli said: men and steel find gold and bread, but bread and gold do not find men and steel. Look at what rich people do in our societies, and you’ll know what I mean.
The problem is that we humans in cannot get satisfied with gold, and that for modern people gold is becoming more and more something that you need to acquire bread, instead of the other way around. Gold is devaluating more and more, even the supplies in Fort Knox are devaluating, and one can ask how much they are worth above the mere market value of gold, I think they lost all symbolic value gold has had in the past.
Economics study in a rational way human behaviour in exchange- situations. It doesn’t assess moral conduct, it simply observes how “gold” (“money”) is strived for as something we all want to have, more, far more, than we need, just (and this is becoming more and more the case) to ensure that as many people as possible will have bread. Apparently everybody wants to be a little god, showing his importance to everybody who can notice it. Success in life is measured in the possession of gold. As I read a long time ago (but I still remember it, but forgot place and author):
- yes, I think I do something useful in my life, I feel I contribute something;
- but why aren’t you rich, then?
Greed is the simple engine of a people’s wellbeing, it seems. I hope I’m wrong, and I am at least partially wrong. Because we use gold, as said, as a gift to what we find worthwhile. Like Machiavelli said: men and steel find gold and bread, but bread and gold do not find men and steel. Look at what rich people do in our societies, and you’ll know what I mean.
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