Ever feel like no matter what you’ve got, someone’s got more?

So asked the bank commercial that played frequently throughout the World Series. 

And then there’s someone with more more. 

Is there more more? Or, is there a limit? 

The bank says we’re richer than we think. I wonder if we really know that?

As I unpack for the Christmas season of 2025, I am trying to sort multiple messages that are dancing in my head – not sugar plums this year. Bear with me as I sift through a few musings. Perhaps you will share these, or maybe it will be food for thought. 

The Blue Jays theme was “I want it all and I want it now,” and this year’s series seemed to carry a special significance given the state of the world. I recall thinking at one point, Canada really needs this win.

Of course, we know the outcome and all of the comments designed to rationalize the blow, but maybe there was a deeper, more meaningful take-away. The team’s hard work brought Canadians together at a time national camaraderie is sorely needed, but there’s more to it than that..

Then, in another celebrity moment, I was wowed with the statement by American singer Billie Eilish at the Wall Street Journal Innovator Awards ceremony in New York city. 

“There’s a few people in this room who have a lot more money than me,” she teased in a sing-song voice. Then, “If you’re a billionaire…why are you a billionaire? Give your money away shorties.” 

This young (she’s only 23) singer recently donated about 22% of her net worth to support food security and climate change  – her donation was $11.5 million! Her audience was comprised of a few billionaires, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  (Who reportedly did not applaud the speech.)

I wonder how many of them enjoyed a good sleep after that searing comment?  My fear is that they slept well. 

While it’s great theatre to see wealthy people call each other out to do more, we don’t need to be a billionaire to fall victim to greed. 

In Robin Wall Kimmerer’s  book, Braiding Sweetgrass Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, the author describes the Indigenous monster Windigo. The short explanation is that Windigo is greed and over-consumption personified in a monster. He would be used as a threat particularly during times of hunger and great need, to keep people in check. When they might be tempted to act inappropriately. For Indigenous ancestors, that might be a winter where food was scarce.  When one might be tempted to not share.

We can see Windigo, the monster of greed and over-consumption, in our world today. Perhaps it’s the threat of recession for us, or a world that is changing so fast we cling to false prophets.

When the bank commercial asks us if we notice someone else who has more, that’s Windigo at work. When we envy our neighbour’s car, or house or pool that’s Windigo at work. When we purchase more than we need, that’s Windigo at work. The “I’ve too many to count boots and coats in my closet” is Windigo at work. 

When children are starving while the rich party at their palatial estates, that’s Windigo at work. 

When the comfortable question the support given to those with less, that’s Windigo at work.

We should all fear this monster.

I have always thought it was good when a business succeeds. I owned a small business for a few years, and it was satisfying to know I was generating revenue to cover incomes for at least four other people and not just myself. 

But knowledge and time have opened my eyes to the negative repercussions of our economic system. Capitalism rewards business growth and with Windigo at the helm, we have supported a model of greed and over-consumption that has richly benefitted those at the very top echelon. Tesla just approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk and the crowd at the annual meeting burst into applause. Windigo on their shoulders.

And the distance between the haves and have nots grows. 

In recent news, grocery stores are now looking at digital pricing so they can immediately lower or increase the amount we pay for our groceries based on the principle of scarcity. Advertise a special, people flock to the store, and suddenly the price goes up because the demand is high. I don’t detect any sympathy in the grocery sector to suggest it won’t be used as a tool to increase their take. Where’s the concern about grocery profits?

How do we defeat Windigo? As Kimmerer writes, we need more than a change in policy that ensures the wealthiest don’t take advantage. “It is not just changes in policies that we need, but also changes to the heart.”

Kimmerer writes of early Indigenous teachings which emphasized the practice of taking no more than you need and always leaving some behind for others, whether that was another human, or in some cases, animal brothers and sisters. You didn’t chop down the first tree you come to and you would never chop down the last tree in the grove. Further, when you took from the earth or an animal’s life to feed your family, you gave thanks.

You didn’t feel entitled, and your worth was not measured in possessions. And you were grateful.

My settler ancestors certainly knew how to live frugally; they reused and didn’t buy new because they could not afford it.  But over the years in our quest to improve our standard of living, we have given way to Windigo. 

Having more is how we have placed value on our lives. (You know the adage, the difference between men and boys is the size of their toys, designed to make us laugh as we accumulated more?)

I remember my mother calling out this unending loop of behaviour – marketing tells us we “need” more, workers want more income to support those “needs”, business wants more for its products and services, workers want more pay, business wants…and so on. Where does it end?

Can we fight Windigo on a personal level? 

Kimmerer writes, “Scarcity and plenty are as much qualities of the mind and spirit as they are of the economy.” She goes on to say that a life of gratitude can be “a powerful antidote to Windigo psychosis.”

Which brings me back to Christmas. A time of giving and of gratitude. The season that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ who told us, among other things, we will either love God and hate money or love money and hate God. Why? Jesus would know people required money to live in the world’s economy. As Brian D. McLaren writes in his book Life After Doom, the Roman civilization in Jesus’ time oppressed the poor because “Money is the measure of value. Without money, to the empire, you’re nothing.” Those without, those with less, were considered unworthy.

Sound familiar?

The alternative offered by Jesus was to “run on a different currency altogether: love.”

McLaren encourages us to read the Bible as Indigenous wisdom and to see Jesus as an Indigenous prophet, who came into the world to teach us to love one another. Part of loving another is ensuring they have enough and then expressing gratitude to Jesus, to God, to our Creator, that our needs have been met and that there is enough for everyone. We’ve lost the Indigenous knowledge of how the earth really does provide all we need, if we just take care of it.

With all due respect to the Blue Jays, and the band Queen who made the song famous, maybe having it all isn’t what we need in more ways than one.

***

Bank of Nova Scotia, YouTube, You’re richer than you think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_j2FF8u_0I f, ret.November 6, 2025

You Tube, I want it all, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JtGdEB1fPXo, November 24, 2025

ETalk, YouTube, Billie Eilish calls out billionaires during innovator awards speech, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj2R_LuCLoU ret. November 6, 2025

Kimmerer, Robin Wall, Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Milkweed Editions, Canada, 2013.

CNN, ov, 6, 2025, Tesla shareholders approve $1 trillion pay package. for Musk, https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/business/musk-trillion-dollar-pay-package-vote, ret.November 24, 2025

City News, Toronto, Shoppers are wary of digital shelf labels, but a study found they don’t lead to price surges, https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/06/09/shoppers-are-wary-of-digital-shelf-labels-but-a-study-found-they-dont-lead-to-price-surges/ , ret. November 9, 2025

Loblaw Companies Ltd., Media Release Nov. 12, 2025, Loblaw Reports Revenue Growth of 4.6% in the Third Quarter, https://www.loblaw.ca/en/loblaw-reports-revenue-growth-of-4-6-in-the-third-quarter/https://www.loblaw.ca/en/loblaw-reports-revenue-growth-of-4-6-in-the-third-quarter/, ret. November 18, 2025

CNN Business, Tesla shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $1trillion pay package, https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/business/musk-trillion-dollar-pay-package-vote, ret. November 11, 2025

Brian D. McLaren, Life After Doom, Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart, St. Martin’s Publishing Group, New York, 2024