More Valuable than Sapphires, Diamonds, and Emeralds
And It Can Only Be Freely Given and Received
I appended the following to a previous post, but I think it deserves to stand on its own.
Very few people would choose “less” if asked, “Would you rather have 10% more money, or 10% less money?” And “everyone,” it seems, dreams of being rich at some point in their lives (if not for their whole lives). But I, who have never been rich (in the normal/accepted sense of the word) — nor have I ever missed a meal or been homeless — have come to the conclusion that truly being rich is primarily about Love.
That may sound hippie-ish or newage-ish, but if “being rich” is when you are the happiest and most content, I can point to two periods in my life when I was the richest, and they have nothing to do with how much money I had or didn’t have at the time. They are:
1) When our sons were living with us, from the birth of our firstborn in 1983 to our second son moving out a few years back, after he got married. There were seven years between our two sons, so that period of family bliss lasted for more than thirty years, almost half of my life.
2) The three-and-a-half months I spent working in the after-school program at Monte Vista TK-8 school here in Monterey, California during the last few months of 2024 and the first part of this year, when I became very close to many of the 1st and 2nd graders (and a few of the Kindergartners and 3rd graders), several of whom ended up calling me Grandpa and sometimes swarmed me with hugs when I arrived on the playground. That brief period was by far the brightest, richest time of my life since losing my firstborn son to death thirteen years ago. I miss those kids every day.
It’s the giving and receiving of love that make us rich. As corny or impractical as it may sound, Love is the most important thing; compared to it, money is nothing. In fact, if money were to try to intrude into the equation, that “love” would be tainted. Those two things, Love and Money, must be kept separate.
I love my wife, and I love my life, but I would feel so much richer if I had at least one or two young kids in my daily life again. A hug from a kid, or even a warm smile and sincere greeting from them, are worth far more than their weight in sapphires, diamonds, and emeralds.
Olde-fashioned as I am, I will conclude with a couple of quotes, one from Emerson and one from the Beatles:
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children…to leave the world a better place…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Can’t Buy Me Love” — The Beatles (John Lennon & Paul McCartney)
