If You Are Worried About The Economy, You Need A Lakshmi

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A beautiful and unusual flier on a lamp post at the corner of Smith and President Streets caught my eye yesterday. Imagine my surprise when I learned that there is a remedy for that feeling of unease we have all been experiencing about our financial future. All we need is a Lakshmi to protect our homes. From the flier:

Worried about the economy?
You need a Lakshmi in your home.
(Goddess of wealth, luck, prosperity)

Oh, it's as easy as that? Well, why didn't someone tell us sooner. We may have prevented this whole mess entirely if we had gotten one of those Lakshmis months ago. Curious about this goddess of good fortune, I went on the web site indicated on the flier and found this useful description:

During the late nineteenth century, India established a printing industry devoted to producing images of Hindu Gods & Goddesses. Go to India today and you’ll see them everywhere ( not the oldest, but prints from about the 1960’s on), in stores and restaurants, on taxi dashboards, tied to bicycle handlebars, even nailed to trees as parts of shrines. For Hindus these prints embody Gods, something of the essence or spirit of a God which is manifest in the world. During puja (daily worship) the God is invited to descend into its image and is treated as a guest. Offerings of fruit, flowers, or sweets are placed before these prints, prayers are chanted to them, incense are burned for them, and garlands of marigolds are hung around their frames.
India’s earliest color prints are lithographs printed from limestone blocks. Images were drawn by hand on as many stones as there were colors to be printed. These stones, each inked in one color, were then printed in succession. By the 1940’s this technique was replaced by the faster and cheaper photo-offset process used today. Most of our prints were made between the late 1890’s and early 1920’s, the first years of color printing in India. We also have some which we consider the best of the 1930’s & early 1940’s.

Now, I am willing to try anything to turn the economy (and our personal finances) around, but frankly, I don't know if I can afford a Lakshmi, though they are stunning.