Amid various reports of unsettling bodings and grinding of teeth over the recent bail-out of the very scalawags whose unethical and greedy doings have led to a meltdown of our economy, the Sunday New York Times business section runs a doting piece on the obscenely huge “yachts” (private passenger liners is a more accurate term) currently in vogue among the Richistani, who derive pleasure from trying to prove whose is bigger by projecting their egos into the size of their boats.   Presently the Dubai is the world’s largest yacht, soon to sail into the penumbra of the Eclipse, which at a rumored 531.5 feet is set to outdo the Dubai by 6.5 feet.

We’re expected to admire this competition as a manifestation of wealth.

The nouveau riche are always with us, alas. As a group, they seem to have little imagination. Too little, for example, to see what real wealth is and that real wealth is always around us.

Real wealth is free, or the next thing to it. It requires little of us. It need not be husbanded, coveted, secured, or proven to be longer, better or more expensive  than the next guy’s. And while money buys amusing toys, as we see by the current events it may come at the expense of integrity and humanity—at the expense of real wealth.

What is wealth? Well, here are a few possibilities, in no particular order:

        Wealth is springtime in the desert.

        Wealth is evenings at the botanical garden.

        Wealth is hanging out with family.

        Wealth is a potluck dinner with friends.

        Wealth is springtime in the backyard.

        Wealth is the company of furry friends.

        Wealth is the air we breathe.

        Wealth is good food.

        If you are a believer, wealth is faith.

So?

The take-away message: We don’t need a lot of money to be rich. When you’re feeling pinched in your project to pay off debt and live within your means, take a few minutes to remember this obvious truth: Things and appearances do not represent true wealth. Wealth is all around us. It’s not stuff that makes us rich. It’s life.

       Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Matthew 6.28–29

idle essays, stress control