A QUESTION TO PONDER

A QUESTION TO PONDER.

A few days ago, I was going through the files on my computer when I saw one titled, “The happiest day of my life”. It was a school essay written by my second daughter. Out of curiosity, I decided to read the story which was about a family holiday, the only one we ever took together in the summer of 2013 to the Island of Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous territory in Tanzania. What made the trip so memorable for my daughter, according to what she wrote was, “My dad travelled with us on holiday for the first time’

Embedded in my daughter’s story is subtle rebuke, perhaps even an indictment. I know they (and of course someone else!) have always canvassed that I should travel with them on holidays but then I have work to do, don’t I? After all, I make the money for them to enjoy such luxury that I never did as the son of carpenter. But I have also had to reflect on parenting in the age that we are in and after reading the internet story below which was recently posted on the listserv, I find the message so instructive that I reproduce it for readers. I hope it blesses you as much as it has blessed me:

In 1923, nine of the wealthiest people in the world met at Chicago’s Edge Water Beach Hotel. Their combined wealth, it is estimated, exceeded the wealth of the Government of the United States at that time. These men certainly knew how to make a living and accumulate wealth. Attending the meeting were the following men:

1. The president of the largest steel company
2. The president of the largest utility company
3. The president of the largest gas company
4. The president of the New York Stock Exchange
5. The president of the Bank of International Settlements
6. The greatest Wheat Speculator
7. The greatest “bear” on Wall Street
8. The head of the World’s greatest Monopoly and
9. A member of president Harding’s cabinet

That’s a pretty impressive line-up of people by anyone’s yardstick. Yet 25 years later, where were those nine industrial giants?

Let’s examine what happened to them 25 years later:

1. The president of the largest steel company (Bethlehem Steel Corp), Charles M Schwab, lived on borrowed capital for five years before he died bankrupt.
2. The president of the largest gas company, Howard Hubson, went insane.
3. One of the greatest commodity traders (Wheat Speculator), Arthur Cutten, died insolvent.
4. The president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, was sent to jail.
5. The member of US President Harding’s cabinet, Albert Fll, ws pardoned from jail just to be able to go home and die in peace.
6. The greatest “bear” on Wall Street, Jesse Livermore committed suicide.
7. The president of the world’s greatest monopoly, Ivar Krueger also killed himself .
8. The president of the Bank of International Settlement, Leon Fraser, equally took his own life.
9. The president of the largest utility company, Samuel Insull, died penniless.

What those people forgot was how to “make life” while they got busy making money! Money in itself is not evil; it provides food for the needy. However, money is only medium of exchange. We need two kinds of education: One that teaches us how to make a living and another that teaches us how to live.

There are many of us who are so engrossed in our professional life that we neglect our family, health and social responsibilities. If asked why we do this, we would reply the” we are doing it for our family”. Yet, our kids are sleeping when we come back home! Twenty years later, we’ll turn back, and they’ll all be gone, to pursue their own dreams and their own lives.

Without water, a ship cannot move. But if the water gets into the ship, the ship will face disaster. What was once productive for the ship now becomes destructive.

Similarly , we live in a time where earning is a necessity but let it not enter our hearts, so that what was once a means of living may not become means of destruction for us as well.

So take a moment and ask yourself: “Has the water entered my ship?”

CULLED FROM THISDAY.