Category : Blogs

Sub Category : Miscellaneous

This is a story about a rich man parting wisdom to his young son in a very subtle way. 

One day, while driving back from a shopping trip at the mall, a rich man looked over at his son sitting beside him engrossed with the new toy they had just bought. A thought came to his mind. 

"Son, how about you and I take a trip this weekend, just the two of us, would you like that?" he asked his son.

"Sure, dad," the son replied, "where are we going?"

"Some place special," the father said with a smile. "You'll just have to wait and see."

The son agreed. He was excited at the thought of the two of them spending some quality time together for he has always looked up to his father.

The weekend arrived and the father and son set off on their "secret" journey. After a few hours of driving, they arrived at an old farm in the countryside which belongs to an old friend of the rich man. They were greeted with a very warm welcome by the family and were treated with a nice spread of food for lunch. After that, they were shown to a small but cosy hut next to the main farmhouse and that was going to be their lodging for the weekend.

Father and son, along with the farmer and his family spent a lot of time together that weekend. It was the first time the boy has ever been on a farm so everything was new and foreign to him. Still, he had a lot of fun.

Finally the weekend came to an end and it was time for the duo to get back home to the city. The farmer's wife packed some food for them to take back with them and after breakfast, they left the farm to start their journey back home.

Glancing at his son the father asked, "Did you enjoy the trip, son? Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Yes, I liked it very much, dad," he said. Sincerity shone in his eyes. "We have a pool that extends till the garden but they have a whole creek which is endless. We have one dog but they have a whole lot of animals. We have a small garden but they have a whole farm. We have imported lamps but they have all the stars and the moon. Our patio reaches the front yard but they have the whole beautiful horizon. Thank you, Dad for showing me how poor we really are."

The rich man smiled. Mission accomplished.

It all depends on the way we look at things. If we have love, friends, family, good health, good humor, humility and a positive attitude towards life, we have everything. We can't buy any of these things. We can have all the material possessions that we can imagine, but if we are poor of spirit, blind of sight and have a closed up heart, we basically have nothing.