Life lessons from a Mexican and a Man in a wheel chair

 

Recently I have been taught or re-reminded of what the important things in life are, and by two very different people. I don’t know if any of you have ever read articles by a newspaper journalist in Mexico by the name of Catón or Armando Fuentes Aguirre, but a coworker passed along to me an article of his in response to an edition of Fortune magazine in which the world´s richest people are listed. The original article is in Spanish, but I have translated it roughly into English, not claiming to be exact, but close enough that you get the idea. Here it is…

"I intend to sue the magazine "Fortune", because I was the victim of an inexplicable omission. The magazine published a list of the world's richest people, and in this list they did not show me. They listed people such as the Sultan deBrunei, and even the heirs of Sam Walton and Takichiro Mori. They also include personalities like Queen Elizabeth of England, Stavros Niarkos, and the Mexican Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcarraga.

But I am not mentioned in the magazine.

And I'm a rich man, immensely rich. And if not, then look: I have life, which I received and do not know why, and health, which I maintain but I do not know how.
I have a family; an adorable wife who in giving her life to me, she became the best part of mine; wonderful children who have given me nothing but happiness; grandchildren with whom I practice a new and joyful form of parenting.

I have brothers who are like my friends, and friends who are like my brothers.
I have people who sincerely love me despite my faults, and people I honestly love despite my own shortcomings.

I have four editors each day to thank because they read what I write poorly and make it into something good.

I have a house, and in it many books (my wife would say I have many books, and among them a house).

I have a bit of the world in the form of a garden that every year gives me apples that would have further shortened the presence of Adam and Eve in Paradise.

I have a dog that will not sleep until I come home and who treats me as if I were the owner of the heavens and the earth.

I have eyes that see and ears that can hear; feet for walking and hands that can touch; a brain that thinks of things that have already occurred to others, but for me they are brand new.

I own the common inheritance of men: happiness for sharing and enjoying, and sorrows that unite me with others who are also suffering.

And I have faith in God who loves me infinitely.

Can there be greater riches than mine?

Why, then did the magazine "Fortune" not put my name in the list of the richest men on the planet? "
And you, how do you consider yourself? Rich or poor?
There are poor people, so poor that the only thing they have is...MONEY"

For those of you Spanish speakers,I am listing the original article at the end of this entry, which is of course written better. I really appreciated the way Catón challenged the concept of richness in a creative, amusing and relatable way. It is true, that no matter who we are, how dirty our feet are, what job we have or don’t have, there is a common experience in all our lives of joys and sorrows; we all have them.

 

It took a Bolivian man to demonstrate to me an example of what I think is the most beautiful part of this ¨common inheritance¨ of joys and sorrows, and that is SHARING them. For the past two months or so, there have been a group of other-abled people camped outside the office of the Franciscan Movement of Justice and Peace.

The group ranges from people of the third generation to teenagers and little kids, all of whom have some sort of disability or are a close family member of someone who does. They are there in support of another group marching to La Paz, asking that the government follow through on providing social services or support for people with disabilities, in the form of money. The government says they are using the money in other ways to support them and they do not have enough to give financial support to everyone.

So each day that I go to Justice and Peace to work, I pass by and greet the people camped out in vigil there. Just the other day I was leaving and a man in a wheel chair called out to me. I turned around and went back to where he was sitting with a bucket in his lap. He put his hand in and pulled out a heaping portion of grapes and as he handed them to me said, “Of all the things I’ve learned in my life, I know that whatever we have, however small, we must share with others”.

 

I smiled at him and thanked him very much. I am not sure which provokes which: the joy that one has motivates them to share it with others, or the act of sharing brings both people joy? Either way, I was touched by his random act of kindness and I agree that sharing is one of the greatest most uniting acts, whether we share our sorrows or our joys, our abundance or our scarcity.

Artículo de Armando Fuentes Aguirre (Catón)
Me propongo demandar a la revista "Fortune", pues me hizo víctima de una omisión inexplicable. Resulta que publicó la lista de los hombres más ricos del planeta, y en esta lista no aparezco yo. Aparecen, sí, el sultán deBrunei, aparecen también los herederos de Sam Walton y Takichiro Mori.

Figuran ahí también personalidades como la Reina Isabel de Inglaterra, Stavros Niarkos, y los mexicanos Carlos Slim y Emilio Azcárraga.
Sin embargo a mí no me menciona la revista.
Y yo soy un hombre rico, inmensamente rico. Y si no, vean ustedes: tengo vida, que recibí no sé por qué, y salud, que conservo no sé cómo.
Tengo una familia, esposa adorable que al entregarme su vida me dio lo mejor de la mía; hijos maravillosos de quienes no he recibido sino felicidad; nietos con los cuales ejerzo una nueva y gozosa paternidad.

Tengo hermanos que son como mis amigos, y amigos que son como mis hermanos.
Tengo gente que me ama con sinceridad a pesar de mis defectos, y a la que yo amo con sinceridad a pesar de mis defectos.

Tengo cuatro lectores a los que cada día les doy gracias porque leen bien lo que yo escribo mal.

Tengo una casa, y en ella muchos libros (mi esposa diría que tengo muchos libros, y entre ellos una casa).

Poseo un pedacito del mundo en la forma de un huerto que cada año me da manzanas que habrían acortado aun más la presencia de Adán y Eva en el Paraíso.

Tengo un perro que no se va a dormir hasta que llego, y que me recibe como si fuera yo el dueño de los cielos y la tierra.

Tengo ojos que ven y oídos que oyen; pies que caminan y manos que acarician; cerebro que piensa cosas que a otros se les habían ocurrido ya, pero que a mí no se me habían ocurrido nunca.

Soy dueño de la común herencia de los hombres: alegrías para disfrutarlas y penas para hermanarme a los que sufren.

Y tengo fe en Dios que guarda para mí infinito amor.

¿Puede haber mayores riquezas que las mías?

¿Por qué, entonces, no me puso la revista "Fortune" en la lista de los hombres más ricos del planeta?"
¿Y tú, cómo te consideras? ¿Rico o pobre?
HAY GENTE POBRE, PERO TAN POBRE, QUE LO ÚNICO QUE TIENE ES... DINERO.

5 Things I am grateful for today: opportunity to share lunch with a friend; recovery of a Franciscan friend; fresh smelling clean clothes; pictures of my cousins´kids that make me happy whenever I look at them; getting running water back.