Published: May 14, 2008 10:54 am            

WRITE ON: WheresGeorge.com

The cash we carry is a lot like a cold: you have it but you don’t know where you got it. Take a look in your pocket or purse and check out your money. I’m willing to bet you can’t remember where each bill or coin came from. There’s just never been a way to “follow the money,” as Sherlock Holmes once famously said.

Actually, the internet now makes it possible to do just that—follow the money. The idea of tracking where our money goes after we spend it is how a website called “WheresGeorge.com” came into being. Its creator, Hank Eskin, evidently wondered where some of his money had been before he got it. This led him to be curious about where it went after he spent it.

Eskin came up with an ingenious solution: he has created a website called “WheresGeorge.com” which enables participants to register and follow money they have received. I only became aware of this the other day when I cashed a small check at the Bank of McCreary County. As I put some bills into my pocket, I noticed that one of them had some writing on it. This isn’t unusual. Many people seem to have a desire to write on money.

What you usually find are things like “Good Luck” or “Hope you get more of these” or some such scribbling. It used to be common when a store or restaurant first opened its doors to save, sign, and frame the first money received. These “icebrakers” were generally inscribed with “Good Luck” and signed and dated by that first customer before being placed near the cash register.

I’ve also found phone numbers, swear words, and other graffiti on bills of currency. But at the bank that day I noticed the following written in red ink on one end of the front of a dollar bill: “Currency tracking study.”

Then I noticed the serial number circled in red. Closer inspection also revealed a red circle around the series identifier—that little year sometimes with a letter which on a one dollar bill appears down at the bottom right portion of the front.

Then as I looked even more closely, I found a green message in a box which had been applied with a rubber stamp. This read: “Track me at www.wheresgeorge.com”. On the back of the bill was another rubber stamped message which read: “See where I’ve been. Please enter my serial number at:

www.WheresGeorge.com

Being curious by nature, I did what the messages instructed and found myself at a most unusual website. Not only could I register my found dollar bill and track its movements, I was also shown links to many, many other websites about money in all its forms. There’s even a website called “UglyMoney.com” where you can see lots of mutilated, decorated, defaced, deformed, and creatively altered money, both paper and coin.

The bill I had been given which started me on my quest was only recently introduced into the “currency tracking study.” It started its journey in Knoxville and hadn’t made many stops before coming into my hands in Whitley City last week. It was shown to be “travelling” at a rate of about three miles per day. I will spend it soon and later check back to see where it goes.

What matters is where one’s curiosity takes us. By chance, I had stumbled into a world of internet money trackers. From there I went into a study of money from many different angles. Did you know there’s even a disorder called “Chrematophobia” which is the fear of money? People with this problem have their own websites. I can help them. All you “Chrematophobes” have to do is send me any money you have which you find frightening. I’ll dispose of it for you—no charge.

Underneath all of this rests a larger and more important reality: the awesome power of the internet. That a chance encounter with a marked dollar bill could open up an entire universe of issues covered at thousands and thousands of related websites suggests that the real forward thrust of human knowledge has the internet at its base. There are now hundreds of billions of websites around the globe in every language and catering to every interest imaginable. We have not begun to scratch the potential of what such collective interactive intelligence may produce. I think that when the history of humanity is completed, the internet will have passed the wheel in being called man’s greatest invention.

For those of you who, like me, are afflicted with Xenophilia—the love of strange things—the internet beckons with a seductive voice to roam through cyberspace and marvel at what humans have created there. There’s even a site called “www.Xenophilia.com” which is a great place to start. But beware: such a voyage can become an addiction leading to depression. Like candy and cake and ice cream, the internet must be enjoyed without overindulging or the results will be unpleasant.

Finally, it occurred to me how wonderful it would be if we could also “track” where our good deeds might have gone after we did them. That person you helped with some problem—where did they go later in life? Who did they help after you had helped them? I wish someone could come up with a way to follow the result of a kindness done to a fellow human being or even an animal.

“WWW.Whereskindness.com” is an internet website which does not yet exist.

If you can find a way to track the results of kindness, let me know. I’m even more interested in that than I am in knowing where my money went.



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Copyright 2008 Peter Ferrara

        

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