{"id":3862,"date":"2012-07-28T04:35:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-28T11:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=3862"},"modified":"2012-07-30T06:42:45","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T13:42:45","slug":"family-riches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/07\/28\/family-riches\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Riches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Here are the riches at Tahoe last year, with increase continuing since. Click for larger view.<\/a><\/h6>\n

We’ve been in England. It could be our last trip there; one never knows. We’ve been many times, but the last several have been to visit daughter Allison and her family. In the fall, they’ll move to California.<\/p>\n

Whether we went for the sake of place<\/em> or to be with family is a question. In truth, it was a\u00a0little of both, but the family part added the richness.<\/p>\n

We took a road trip to Scotland. The weather\u00a0cooperated\u00a0mostly. We had rain, but with two-year-old Justine in the car, we carried sunshine with us.<\/p>\n

She’s one of 14 such grandchildren we have spread around a wide geography. Next month Anne will go to welcome another, in Chicago.<\/p>\n

It’s all a growing return on earlier investment. Now to see them,\u00a0we scrape our pennies together to go and visit our wealth. Or they travel to us.<\/p>\n

Last year we gathered together in a nine-bedroom house built into the side of a hill at Lake Tahoe. That’s how we have to do it these days, what with our overflowing abundance.<\/p>\n

The deeper appreciation of family is something I’ve noticed in my dad in these later years. In September he’ll be 96, with my mother right behind. He’s always been an active man, interested in many things, happy, but not particularly sentimental. Now it’s family that provides his main meaning.\u00a0My father has never had wealth, but there’s always been an even contentment about him, and still is.<\/p>\n

It’s the opposite to the tragic description here:<\/p>\n

There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother.<\/strong>
\nThere was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.<\/strong>*<\/p>\n

Flying back over the Atlantic I took in an old classic, The Godfather III.<\/em> I couldn’t help but note\u00a0the summary by the rich and aging Michael Corleone,\u00a0“The only wealth in this world is children.”<\/p>\n

I realize those without children can still find plenty of meaning. But for me the longer I live, the richer I’m becoming; and the day that I die will be my richest of all.<\/p>\n

There’s a great contentment there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

________________________<\/p>\n

*Ecclesiastes 4:8<\/p>\n

Next: We’ll Never Fill Up.<\/em> Coming Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our sense of riches depends in large measure in what we count. And some things count for more than others. Much more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3898,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions\/3898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}