If I Were A Rich Man

If I Were A Rich Man…la ti da da

Does money corrupt?  Or does a certain feeling of power that money often gives one actually corrupt?
What would we do had we won that Powerball lottery that the woman won this past week?  She was advised to more or less hide (fat chance) from relatives, those who would see her as a way to profit off her winnings, and advised to get a good accountant and lawyer.  Ahhh!  One must protect one’s self.  Would you do that?
True, relatives she has never met or heard of will be “getting in touch” to help her disperse her newly acquired wealth.  “Old friends” from school, church, work will be making contact, having lost touch with her so many years ago.  And charities, investors, etc., will be calling and tugging at her heartstrings to help those she is now able to give to.  Would you listen and try to decide what to do?
Personally, if we won the huge Powerball lottery, we would probably be broke within a year.  We would do crazy things like buy a piece of land, put tiny homes on it for veterans and the homeless, clean out the animal shelters and take them all to roam and be loved on acreage we would buy.  We would allot a certain amount to St. Jude’s children’s hospital, build housing for LGBTQ who have been estranged by their families, and put little libraries with free books all around for children and adults to take books and read and read and read!  We would pick up the bills for those who cannot afford healthcare and distribute food.  We would set up mobile showers and job trainings for those on the streets and only ask they pay it forward as they become self-sufficient.  We would champion MADD, Black Lives Matter, farm workers, try to help refugees who are only looking to escape terror and killing and have a better life.  We would foster animals being cared for by inmates in prisons, offering skills to those same people, have a restaurant that feeds the homeless and hungry for free.  See why we would be broke so quickly?  But that is not the real WHY…
The real WHY is because there are so many people struggling, so many animals being killed and abandoned, so many people trying to be heard that are silenced and instead discriminated against.  If we won the lottery and could use it as we wished…
But we have not won.  We don’t even have the money to buy a chance so our odds are absolutely nil of winning without buying that ticket.  Had we bought the ticket and won, we would do all the things listed above and as much more as we could  until the money ran out.  But it didn’t happen.  It won’t happen in all likelihood until we buy a ticket which means we have to have the money to do so.  BUT!  All the things we want to do can still be done.  As so many have said, “Kindness costs nothing.”  Loving someone, caring, compassion cost nothing.  If we feed an animal, love it, that is one less starving and killed animal.  If we feed one homeless person/veteran, hunger pangs are relieved for a while and they don’t feel abandoned or disparaged.  We could take the dollar we would spend on a lotto ticket and send it to St. Jude’s to show we care.  We can support those people abandoned because of their sexual orientation, march with MADD, the Black Lives Matter people, the farm workers, be kind to a person newly arrived from a war-torn/oppressive country.  We can petition for empathic change in the prison system, hand out books to those wanting to read and learn, buy a meal for a hungry person, show someone how to do something that may get them a job, try to get others at schools, gyms, to allow those on the streets to shower.  Oh—there is soooo very much we can do!  Not big stuff in the eyes of the world—but, big, caring, kind in the eyes of the hungry, the abused, those without hope or a voice.
Those reasons, those people, groups, animals do not deplete our feelings of kindness as we spread it.  True, if I had money, I could do more, and bigger and better things.  But the kindness, the love are not monitored by money and/or power.  It is just us, sharing our hearts.  That cannot be bought or sold and that will help us and everyone we can reach.  That is true richness and wealth.