by John Woolman & Paulette Meier
May we look upon our treasure,
our furniture & our garments,
May we look upon our treasure,
our furniture & our garments,
And try to discover whether the seeds of war
Are nourished by these our possessions.
This is almost word for word a statement written by the Quaker traveling minister and abolitionist, John Woolman in 1774: “May we look upon our treasure, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try to discover whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions.” He believed that over-consumption of goods contributed directly to not only warfare, but to the practice of chattel slavery, economic injustice, damage to the environment, and harm to domestic animals.
Paulette Meier set these words by John Woolman to music as a round. It can be found on page 207 in the “Peace” chapter of Rise Again and on Paulette’s album “Timeless Quaker Wisdom”.