Junior,

You’re going to be born into a fairly affluent family. You don’t know what that means yet and very likely won’t for many years. Let’s just say you won’t want for anything because mom and dad do all right. We’re not rich (yet) but we do OK.

This past Sunday, your mom and I went to Lowe’s and Wal-Mart to pick up some things (ink jet cartridge and a keypad that opens the garage door). As we sometimes do, we stop in the store called The Dollar Tree, which sells items for a dollar. We stop in there to get toys for the dogs (who you haven’t met yet) that we don’t mind if they destroy, after all they’re just a dollar.

While deciding which knickknacks we were going to get for the dogs to destroy, we noticed some people shopping and overheard them saying Grandma will like this and Susie will like this toy. Here we were looking for stuff that we were going to let the dogs destroy at the same place a less fortunate family was doing their Christmas shopping for their loved ones. Boy, we felt pretty awful. And we felt sorry for them.

We spent probably $30 on the ink cartridge (I don’t even remember how much it costs and that makes me feel even worse) and $32 on the keypad. What can you do in this situation? Nothing really. It’s not like you can walk up to the family and hand them $62 and hope that makes you feel better. Or expect that $62 to turn their lives around if you got over the awkwardness of actually approaching them and giving it to them without making them feel belittled. So, I did nothing. We didn’t buy anything at the Dollar Tree that day.

In your life, you’re going to meet people less fortunate than you. Heck, the statistic is that most families are a month without pay away from being destitute (don’t worry, mom and I can last considerably longer – we have the luxury of planning for this sort of thing – you’re not even born yet and have a college fund that’s three years old). But one long-term illness and it could happen to us (OK, not really, we have insurance). But there is some set of circumstances that could financially ruin us, even though I can’t think of what they are currently. See, your mom and I have planned and we make decent money. A family Christmas shopping at the Dollar Tree doesn’t have a college fund, or insurance, or a savings account. They don’t have the stuff that we’ve already bought for you. They don’t have the luxury that your family has.

You need to be considerate of those less fortunate than you and you need to be kind. And you need to be charitable. I guess when mom and I get a few toys to donate to the Angel Tree, we’re making up for the way we felt at the Dollar Tree.

I guess my point is to give when you can.

Posted in Notes to Junior on December 22nd, 2003 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |