hot, rain, hot, rain...

hot, rain, hot, rain, this is the weather pattern for the last few days. it is melbourne, so it is crazy, like when i say hot, i mean hot, and when i say rain, i mean rain.

i was chatting with some of the girls tonight and the discussion got around to money. i got really aggitated. it can be such a big thing. sure ok, it's nice to be set up for the future, but really, is it that important? money can be such a powerful thing and our money can do so much more for others (talking here about those with nothing in our world - no food, no clean water, no shelter, no clothes) than it could do for us! living in nice middle class suburbia, teaching at a nice middle class school means for me, it could be quite easy to fall into the trap of wanting to make sure i have nice things, go nice places, live in a nice house, wear nice clothes, drive a nice car. but i have been thinking lately about how important this really all is to me. not that it has been important, but when you make big decisions about how you are going to spend the money you do have, you kind of have to think about it a bit more. i do agree that you have to be responsible with it. but what is responsible? is that to yourself to save enough money to buy a home with a few houndred thousand dollar loan or is it to spend a tenth of your home loan deposit so you can build a whole school in africa? is it to go and buy a new outfit or spend the same money (potentially less depending where you shop) on sponsoring a child for a whole year? how responsible are you with your money?