The Christmas wrapping paper mountain keeps growing higher. Shining foil, patterned paper, bows large and small, ribbons of fiber and of fabric, torn cartons and Styrofoam packing shapes, are all stacking and spilling on one side of the living room. The children are shrieking with delight. They can not open the packages fast enough. Suddenly the frenzy is over. Christmas dinner or Christmas breakfast or a visit to the next house is on the menu. Hurry, hurry, hurry, the holiday so long awaited will pass so fast. Toys are strewn everywhere. Several are already damaged. A few were passionately hoped for. The rest are the product of worried parents, grandparents, friends and relations, who fled up and down the aisles, cramming shopping carts, asking themselves repeatedly, Is it enough? Did I get them enough? ------- The pizza counter assistant from the local high school smiles at the customer as she rings up his charge. That will be $14.05, she says cheerfully. Great, says her customer. Heres fifteen dollars, and Ill give you a nickel as well. He watches in amazement as she begins to perspire in the air conditioning, struggling to figure out how much change she needs to give him. At last he gently leans over the counter. The difference between $14.05 and $15.05 is one dollar, Miss. Thatll be just fine, he whispers. He doesnt want to embarrass her. ------ The young couple in the BMW dealership clearly wants the car. With the features theyve chosen, the price tag will be $53,000. After the customer representative has done his paperwork, he pushes it across the desk to them. You just hold that car for us, they tell him. Were going to refinance our condo and come back for it. Are you sure thats a good idea? asks the rep? He knows from his conversations and the paperwork that their joint income is less than the cost of the car... ------- Alot is being reported in the general media today about how the richest society in the world is financially illiterate. We know the price of everything and the value of nothing, says Bruce Bradshaw, a financial advisor whose firm is headquartered in a wealthy lakes area in Southeast Wisconsin. Just look at these three little stories. Dont you know a story just like one of these? The savings rate in this nation is at minus zero. Children who have so much often actually appreciate very little. What a sharp contrast that is to another story that a friend of mine told me recently. She was reading womens correspondence from the late 1800s. A teenager was writing to her aunt thanking her for her Christmas gifts, which meant the world to her. Thank you for the orange and the hair ribbons, she wrote. They made me so very happy and I will never, ever forget this Christmas and your generosity. That young woman understood the value of the gifts given, said Mr. Bradshaw. It is my opinion that we adults MUST, MUST teach the children we love the values of a well lived lifevalues that carry no pricetag. |
