Rich or poor: true wealth

Why do we judge and make assumptions about the rich and the poor? Consider this story to step back and reflect about who may truly be living who's dreams...

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the purpose of showing his son how the poor people live so he could be thankful for his kind of wealth. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what the father saw as a very poor family.

During their return journey, the father asked his son, "How was the trip for you?" "It was great, Dad." "Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked. "Oh, yeah" said the son.   The father was curious.  "So, what exactly did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered, "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end." "We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night." "Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon." "We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight." "We have servants who serve us, but they serve others." "We buy our food, but they grow theirs." "We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them." With this the boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks dad for showing me how poor we are."

This story shows us how different perspectives and perceptions exist.  Rather than ask yourself why you aren't living someone else's dreams, why not focus on why you aren't living your own? You would benefit from discovering how you think and why.

Comments

[Rose]

It's interesting that I read your post about this. I read somewhere else online that when you see people living the kind of lifestyle that you want and you start to envy it - it is just a sign telling you that you're not living the life that you want and the universe/God is trying to you something

[Liara Covert]

Hi Rose,
Life is funny that way. Signs exist all around us to offer us clues about what we really desire and those things that would be truly fulfilling. We just don't always recognize them for what they are. It is often only by stepping outside of what we know that we begin to realize who we are and what we're really doing here. To really make progress, and see through culural conditioning to a personal truth, people need to take steps to forget things they were taught. Are you uncovering 'the real you?'