I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Noe Valley, San Francisco, on a typically foggy, cold summer day. An old man in a rumpled trench coat comes hobbling in. He is visibly disheveled, with the wear of the elements upon him and a few missing teeth amongst the remaining crooked, stained ones. I wonder if he will ask for money. He sits down next to me, on a stool. I smile at him brightly.
As I finish my latte and prepare to leave, I drop a dollar. He picks it up and returns it to me. I say, “You keep it,” thinking he would appreciate a cup of coffee. He hands it back to me and says, “No, you need it more than I do.” I look at him curiously. Then he says, “Look at your teeth.”
Faith,
There is Elvis Presley’s song titled “Who Needs Money”, and almost every verse of that song ends with an answer “Not me”. Well, wish I could answer the question that way, unfortunately I need to say: yes, I do need money ;-). But, in that song there is also a verse which says: “All the greatest things in life are free” – and yes, I do agree with that! No matter how rich we are, we cannot buy true love, friendship, happy family… To add a little bit more to that, there is also a saying: “If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can't buy”. And that’s the way I feel.
The world we live in is made of money, but I think what’s important here is our attitude toward money and how ‘big’ we make it. I’m not making money my goal, though yes, money make life a little bit easier.
My beloved Grandma used to say, ‘when you give, you’ll always have’, and I agree with that, and have experienced it many times.
So Faith, what I’m going to do tomorrow is to take my nephews for some nice field trip, and spend a little bit, ‘cause like in Elvis Presley’s song: “Some folks save it, some folks lend it, but as for me I want to spend it” 🙂
Haha. Here’s some spiritual wisdom from my dad. “Money can’t buy happiness. But it sure helps.”