Find Out What You Are Really Worth
Marguerite Theophil
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Sharing takes many shapes and forms, from the ostentatious to the anonymous or silent, each with its own motivations. A few of them can touch and inspire us. A story that stays with me is one about the poet Pablo Neruda. When he was still a little boy, Neruda discovered a hole in a fence board while playing in the yard behind his house. He looked through the hole and saw a bit of land much like that behind their own house, uncared for, wild.He says of what happened next: “I moved back a few steps, because i sensed vaguely that something was about to happen. All of a sudden a hand appeared a tiny hand of a boy about my own age. By the time i came close again, the hand was gone, and in its place there was a marvellous white toy sheep.“
Now this toy sheep's wool was faded, its wheels had fallen off. To Neruda, “All of this only made it more authentic. I had never seen such a wonderful sheep.“ He looked again through the hole but the boy had left him this `gift' and disappeared. So young Pablo went to his house and brought out a little `treasure' of his own a perfect pine cone which he adored.He set it down by the hole in the fence for the unknown boy.
“I never saw either the hand or the boy again. And I have never seen a sheep like that either. The toy i lost finally in a fire.“ But, as Neruda, who has commented on this incident several times, reminds us: “This exchange of gifts ... settled deep inside me like a sedimentary deposit ... I have been a lucky man. To feel the intimacy of brothers is a marvellous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that come from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weaknesses that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things.“
Wealth, among American Indian people, narrated, in a book called `The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge Sources of Life', is not seen as the accumulation and keeping of money or goods or land. For most Native American cultures, it tells us, to be wealthy meant that one had lived well carefully, with knowledge which had enabled the individual to hunt well, sew well, bring up children well, and if necessary, to fight well, depending on one's responsibilities. It had a line i saved in my notebook that was a precious teaching: To be wealthy meant that one had much good; enough to give away. To feel one has “Enough good to give away“ what a beautiful concept! Then there is a lovely story about the philanthropic Moses Montefiore, an outstanding figure of the 19th century in Britain. Someone once asked him, “Sir, what are you worth?“ He reflected for a while, and then named a figure. “But surely,“ his questioner demanded, “your wealth must be much more than that.“ With a smile, Moses replied, “You didn't ask me how much i own. You asked me how much i am worth. So i calculated how much i have given to charity this year. You see,“ he said, “we are worth what we are willing to share with others.“
Now this toy sheep's wool was faded, its wheels had fallen off. To Neruda, “All of this only made it more authentic. I had never seen such a wonderful sheep.“ He looked again through the hole but the boy had left him this `gift' and disappeared. So young Pablo went to his house and brought out a little `treasure' of his own a perfect pine cone which he adored.He set it down by the hole in the fence for the unknown boy.
“I never saw either the hand or the boy again. And I have never seen a sheep like that either. The toy i lost finally in a fire.“ But, as Neruda, who has commented on this incident several times, reminds us: “This exchange of gifts ... settled deep inside me like a sedimentary deposit ... I have been a lucky man. To feel the intimacy of brothers is a marvellous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that come from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weaknesses that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things.“
Wealth, among American Indian people, narrated, in a book called `The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge Sources of Life', is not seen as the accumulation and keeping of money or goods or land. For most Native American cultures, it tells us, to be wealthy meant that one had lived well carefully, with knowledge which had enabled the individual to hunt well, sew well, bring up children well, and if necessary, to fight well, depending on one's responsibilities. It had a line i saved in my notebook that was a precious teaching: To be wealthy meant that one had much good; enough to give away. To feel one has “Enough good to give away“ what a beautiful concept! Then there is a lovely story about the philanthropic Moses Montefiore, an outstanding figure of the 19th century in Britain. Someone once asked him, “Sir, what are you worth?“ He reflected for a while, and then named a figure. “But surely,“ his questioner demanded, “your wealth must be much more than that.“ With a smile, Moses replied, “You didn't ask me how much i own. You asked me how much i am worth. So i calculated how much i have given to charity this year. You see,“ he said, “we are worth what we are willing to share with others.“
