"Why Does Anyone Need That Much Wealth?"

“Why Does Anyone Need that much wealth?” I exclaimed to a friend of mine today. I added, “I have thought this on and off over the last decade. Yet, the past week, I’ve asked it out loud every day at least once a day in my kitchen alone.” She replied, “Well, it’s like you running. What drives you to keep running?” I had to think about that. I wondered if that was true. I stated, “So, they have enough for their great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren? That makes no sense. And everybody dies. You’re not taking it with you.”

Now, alone in front of my computer reading and studying for an economics course I’m taking; my mind whispered again, ‘But why does anyone go after so much wealth? It’s not the same as my running goals. Those goals are a two-way street. I run enough in training, so I can run enough to raise money for charity doing what may be an insane attempt of a feat on my feet someday, even in my sixties’.

I have no clue when or if I can accomplish that level of running and raise more charitable funds than I ever have with my running. But it’s not about me. It’s about we. It’s about helping people, who need the medical apparatus, the therapy, the science and so forth. It’s not about my becoming a millionaire. No. It’s about giving away what little endurance I may have mentally to drag my body physically for other’s needs. Others I have never met. Yet, I sense the need for my fortitude to give hope as part of my journey on this earth. It is all I have to give. And so, out of gratefulness, that is my desire. That is my drive.

Certainly, I want our daughters to gain monetarily from my life, so I spend less. I have two part-time jobs and am building a business on the side, and that is as I train my running body. I think most people want to have a cushion for themselves and perhaps to extended family members as well. However, work is good for the soul. Whether someone needs to work or not for the money. Work helps keep the mind fresh, the spirit higher. Work brings knowledge, because things are always changing in most work environments.

Many times, work presents meeting new people, new personalities. It teaches us to get along, to listen, and to take orders. Most of us have to take orders from someone in our lives. Work shows us what we enjoy, what we despise. It shows us our flaws and our assets. Those flaws and assets are waiting for us to be reckoned with. It’s part of our growth on many levels, including spiritually.  

Wealth can be equated with power. That power trip is an illusion. The illusion expands the ego. The more wealth a person gains eventually many times it prevents contact with the masses. Rarely does it expand contact and connection with any variety. Usually, the wealthier the person the more secluded they become. That is out of fear. I’ve learned this from running my own business over a near thirty-year period. Too, I’ve heard this from CPAs who I’ve known. Who’ve dealt with the very wealthy.

Having money, and a cushion is fine. Knowing that you’ve earned it, and it wasn’t handed to you, has its own rewards. Quite often those rewards come with gratefulness. It gives a person a sense of capabilities. Capabilities can be something as seemingly menial as changing a battery in your home’s smoke detector or mopping a floor. Or it can be redoing the deck of the old new home you’d bought or perhaps figuring out how to save on appliance usage or successfully taking care of an elderly pet, when you can’t get to your local veterinarian.

Life is filled with risky and tricky things that crop up. And those of us that may have a little cushion of funds yet are not wealthy but had to earn it will most likely find joy in the little things in life. Small appreciations will occur and grow into even bigger appreciations. That is part of what fulfills most humans in their lives. Wanting a better life for others, does increase joy. Many times, it brings more joy to the giver than the taker. What’s in it for them? Is a better concern that quite often enriches the giver’s life. It raises serotonin levels inside the giver's mind. And that regardless of who that receiver may be, there is a tendency for the giver to feel high.--- Jody-Lynn Reicher