Recently, I awoke during the night with a strange thought, even for me, even for the time of night it was.  The thought was in the form of a question:  "Is it time to create a new form of money?"  As I laid in bed, drifting in and out of sleep wondering why I'd be asking myself such a question, some other thoughts began to 'percolate'

You see, I'm of the old school.  I still like to carry around cold, hard cash.  I even enjoy carrying around warm, soft cash.  Whether it's coins or bills, I enjoy the illusion these physical totems give me.  Even so, I know money isn't real, not really.

I watch my 17-year old daughter who rarely carries money around with her. Instead, she carries a debit card.  Whenever she needs something she just swipes her card.  She maintains her account on her computer, watching closely that the balance stays above zero.  She probably comes closer to realizing the unreality of money than I do.  I still get caught up in thinking those bills and coins are the money that's so important to so many people especially right now as the government is committed to circulating billions of dollars to 'stimulate the economy.'  Oh by the way, the economy isn't really real either.

I keep watching for the line of Brink's trucks careening down the highway delivering all those billions of dollars.  I read in the newspaper just yesterday, that our small county here in the North Carolina mountains is slated to get $10 million for highway improvements.  Surely, they'll have to deliver that in a armored car, right?

Or will our mayor just swipe the county's debit card? Oh, by the way, there's one other thing that's not real in this whole global economy — it's the FEAR that has all that unreal money frozen, that's keeping the bills and coins out of our pockets and most of us from swiping are cards for the things we need.

But boy can the media make that fear appear real.  I'd love to see a nightly report on FEAR — the false evidence appearing as real.  It might just free us up a bit…more so than all the drama that's being showcased.

And now that I've gotten this off my chest, the question I'm left with is this: "If money isn't real, than what is it?"  Come back in a couple of days to learn what percolates to the surface.