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Monday, May 22, 2006

Wealth

Our oldest forwarded this to me and somehow it resonated:

What is the difference between the rich and the poor?

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip
to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people
live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be
considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the
trip?"

"It was great, Dad."
"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.
"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have
a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at
night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go
beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to
protect them."

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added,
"Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

10 comments:

npanth said...

Nice parable. I like it alot

Unknown said...

Okay, threecollie,

Ask yourself: "How many times can I make W. J. get all misty-eyed, today?"

The answer? Twice!

Your rich/poor parable warmed me up to a nice level of blinky-eyed mistiness, than you moved in for the teary kill with your Barbaro comments!

I plan three Saturdays a year around the Triple Crown, and was comfortably settled on my couch to watch The Preakness. My stomach just flipped when I saw what was happening. I'm crossing my fingers against bad news. Let's hope medical technology does its thing!

P.S., do you, by chance, know anthing about the cows I've posted recently? They have brindle (mostly brownish) markings, and irregular white masks. Any idea what they are?

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! Obviously penned by a poor country person....

threecollie said...

Npanth, thanks for stopping by

WJ, we think they are crossbreds, may brahman and long horn or simmental. Can't be sure about beef breeds; there are a lot of them. That is a pretty neat picture of them!

Hi,NW, good to "see" you. I had a big mistake last week that almost required your expertise, but the boss found it. Dang! I could have used a visit, just for the visiting part!

Unknown said...

Thanks, threecollie! The response that you left over at Art166 is classic, especially the "unlikely" wordplay! Do you mind if I quote you in a blog post, later this week?

And, please thank the rest of your 'voting committee' for me!

threecollie said...

WJ,
You are more than welcome, and I would be honored. Quote anything you would like.

Anonymous said...

Thank-you so much for this parable. I just happened upon your blog for the first time and found the most moving thing I've read all week. This is the most important lesson I've tried to instill in my children.

threecollie said...

Thanks, Cav, wish I could take credit, but this is something one of our daughter's college friends sent her, she forwarded it to me, and it was too good to delete. Thanks for visiting.

Ontario Wanderer said...

Sometimes we forget . . .

threecollie said...

Montana Farmer, that is a real good one and one that I hadn't seen before. Thanks for stopping by.