The essay of Elizabeth M. Lynn and D. Susan Wisely, “Only Reflect: A Philanthropic Education for Our Time” (The Perfect Gift), pp. 409 – 415, describes the experience of some study groups engaged in reflecting on the multiple meanings of giving.

Such conversations often stumbled whenever the group comes close to violating the taboo against speaking forthrightly about money. Here again, the writings of sociologist Robert Wuthnow are very helpful. “The blackout on discussions of money is not absolute, of course, but what people say they do and do not talk about is very revealing. . .. What people are most reluctant to discuss are their salaries, their personal net worth, and their debts (P .142, p. 143)."

Read Chapter Six: “(Not) Talking about Money: The Social Sources and Personal Consequence of Subjectivization,” pp. 138 – 168 in Robert Wuthnow, Poor Richard’s Principle: Recovering the American Dream Through the Moral Dimension of Work, Business, and Money (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1996).

Another stimulating resource is Jacob Needleman, Money and the Meaning of Life (New York: Doubleday, 1991). Read Chapters 19 – 20, (pp. 216 – 247).

“I saw, at least in myself, that the passions and drives that surround the money question have been formed in us at the very roots of our personality and that there can be no such thing as authentic morality until we confront this fact in all its immensity (p .246)."