Gone the Way of the Statue Makers Guild

Last night at dinner I chatted with a new acquaintance from the Midwest. Over chips and salsa on the waterfront, he told me how he’s been dealing with the stream of car owners coming to trade-in their SUVs at the dealership where he sells cars.

“Most people drive about 1000 miles per month,” he tells his customers “If you do the math, you’ll be saving about $3 per day switching to a fuel economy car.” Then he adds, “ Just give up your daily Starbucks and you don’t have to trade in your car. This SUV fits your lifestyle, with the little car, it will be hard to manage your life.”

Interesting. What he said is economically viable right now and probably accurate about the lifestyle, but I noted no concern for U.S. oil dependency, forget about carbon footprint. I made a comment, but I didn’t push it. I pick my battles and this one I wouldn’t win over chips and salsa. However, I do wonder how he makes a living not selling cars.

That conversation reminded me of a discovery during my fervent agnostic period several decades ago in the College of Arts and Letters. I took a course called Bible as Literature. I remember two things about that class. One, the professor was very tall and thin, and two, an epiphany of how our livelihood affects our priorities. Whether this Bible story is actually historic is irrelevant to one enlightening point I saw.

The book of Acts tells the experiences of the early followers of Jesus. They often caused an upheaval in the populace for expounding radical ideas. This is generally the focus from a religious perspective, but I latched onto a different scene. In the town of Ephesus, a silversmith who was leader of the statue makers’ guild called a meeting to point out the economic danger of a new ideology.

“Men, you know we receive a good income from this business (goddess statue making), and you see how this fellow . . . has led astray large numbers of people . . . there is danger that our trade will lose its good name . . .” Perhaps as an afterthought he adds, “. . . also that our goddess will be robbed of her divine majesty.”

A couple of thousand years later the impetus for or against change remains the same. Ideology is important, but losing income trumps ideology in the beginning. Still, change does come. You’ve probably noticed as I have that over the past two thousand years, the silversmith goddess-statue-makers guild has pretty much petered out. They found another way to make a living. Perhaps they’re molding SUVs.