A family is wealth

What is real wealth? I’d say a loving family is a gift of wealth. And what we do to make each member become who they can be is the greatest contribution of a family member to its collective wealth. This came to my mind as I read the program of Bing Pimentel’s play Pag-ibig sa Bayan.

Her daughter Lorraine Marie put it this way: "As a curious child, I asked mother, ‘Nanay, are we rich?’ Without hesitation, Mama Bing’s answer was a resounding ‘Yes!’ She said that we were rich in respectability because of the good name my father gave us. Rich in love within the family, rich in intelligence because we were getting good grades, rich in beauty, average in money, but rich in health." I cite that old Franklin adage: "Health is wealth." If anyone is unhealthy, how can he enjoy his wealth?

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I read Nafziger’s book on development on the many options or choices a person has in life, the wealthier the person is. To illustrate, a rich man may opt to eat at any restaurant he chooses because he can afford everything listed on the menu, while a poor person has less choices because of his limited funds.

Some even posit that the less a man uses the doorknob, the richer he is… for a wealthy person always has someone to open doors for him, whether it is a car door or a room door or a restaurant door or the door to someone’s heart.

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How did the word wealth come to mean possession? "Weal" is the root word of wealth that describes that state of well-being with enjoyable blessings. Later on its usage became more objective with direct reference to the possession of material things that could promote financial and economic security.

Well-being is a subjective term because one can be wealthy, but outside the state of well-being, he could be sick and unwell. With this deduction we can surmise Benjamin Franklin’s mindset in conceptualizing his very popular "health is wealth" adage in his Poor Richard’s Almanac.

So wealth, while conveying the essential idea of comfort, must be refined following some appropriate perspective. An unselfish friend is a form of wealth. Wealth dwells in the soul, which to me is righteous gold. A family with political or economic clout that has genuine understanding of the needs of others is one which the French say possesses noblesse oblige, a genuine concern for the less fortunate without hypocrisy and veiled motives. Wealth is knowledge.

Really, the definition of wealth and comfort may be broadened or narrowed by modifying the meaning of economic goods in the ownership of lands, stocks, bonds, all tangible; and because of its tangibility, its materiality is subject to trials.

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Analyzing these thoughts on wealth, I am reminded of the story of Fr. Frank Mihalic SVD in his book The Next Five Hundred Stories, a compilation of homilies. This book recounts how the world’s most successful businessmen, a group of high-powered specialists, met in Chicago in 1922 to discuss how to make money. Twenty-seven years later, the tables had turned. Well, you see, all of them knew how to make money, but none of them knew how to manage it.

Howard Hopson, then president of the largest gas company in his time, became insane. Charles Schwab, president of the largest independent steel company, lived on borrowed money the last years of his life and died bankrupt. Arthur Cutter, the greatest wheat speculator, died in poverty and in a foreign land. Albert Fall, a member of the United States President’s cabinet, was pardoned from prison so he could die at home. Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange, had to sit and wait it out at Sing-Sing Prison.

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To most, a wealthy person is one who is well off, rich or bountiful, possessing objects that contribute to his material welfare. In this sense, those who have vast possessions are wealthy groups or individuals. However, wealth is also relative because there is no hard and fast rule as to the exact amount by which one is considered wealthy. And there is also a hierarchy of wealth because even if one is considered wealthy, there is always another person who may be richer than him.

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I almost sound like I’m talking to pupils, so let me quote Bertrand Russell V. Delong: "The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real estate, but friendships, trust, confidence, mercy, love and faith."

Heaven! To have both categories, though!

And again as Lorraine Marie wrote, "My mother taught me to grasp the true meaning of wealth. I am sure I hadn’t fully grasped what she meant when I was six, but through time I learned to value what really are important in life – integrity, love, and honor."

Looking back, I believe that martial law was a trying time for our family but we endured and survived together. I am rich in the knowledge that I have parents who taught me right from wrong, not only by words but by action.

Every loving parent deserves that praise. Every parent is without a doubt of incomparable and immeasurable wealth.