365 Lessons: #1 Becoming Rich

365 Lessons:  #1 Becoming Rich

I’m working on processing three books right now.  I just finished Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman and started Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Stretching the School Dollar, which was edited by Frederick M. Hess and Eric Osberg.  All three books speak to the idea that we don’t always get what we want, and that generally speaking things work out well when we make the best of what we get.  Part of my learning today is based on the balance between desires and resources.

Socrates, the wise old teacher from Warrior makes it clear to a young Dan (seeking happiness and fulfillment) that anyone who is able to fulfill his desires with the resources that he has is rich.  All the money in the world can’t address a consistent craving for “more.”  However, if a person is able to manage his needs and desires so that they’re satiable with fewer resources than he has, that person is rich.  In other words, being rich means having the resources to fulfill your desires.  Socrates was able to manage his desires so that they didn’t require much to fulfill.  Arguably a more efficient and less stressful way to become rich than trying to amass large amounts of money – unless you win the lottery, get discovered by an influential modeling agent while walking across the street, or inherit a hefty family fortune.

In the first chapter of The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins doesn’t yet realize that not only is there a bit of an adventurer inside of him (from the Took side of the family), but that he’s ready for a good adventure right now.  As twelve dwarfs and a wizard storm his cozy Hobbit hole an internal war begins to wage inside his heart.  Is he excited?  Is he frightened?  Is he worried that there will be no fresh cakes left for his after dinner snack?  In the end (or the beginning – depending on how you look at it) he can’t help but follow the motley crew on their quest, becoming as much a part the adventure as any one of them.  Bilbo needs a push and some motivation, however, he has the self-awareness and courage to realize that his riches don’t rest in the warmth and plenty of his parlor or his pantry but in his ability to venture into the unknown and follow his heart.

The introduction to Stretching the School Dollar deals with the idea that the diminishing and arguably dire financial situation public school systems are finding themselves in is actually an opportunity.  Given the need to educate our students with increasingly fewer resources begs the question, “How are we spending the money we do have?”  Hess quotes Rahm Emanuel as saying, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”  Education leaders have an opportunity to make their school communities “rich” by starting with the obvious desire for consistently improved student achievement and working to identify and manage other needs under the budget they have in front of them.  Where are we spending money?  How are those investments addressing our needs?  What can we do to increase our efficiency and the fulfillment of our needs and goals simultaneously?  Easier said than done.  However, this is not the first time that a “back to the basics” approach seemed necessary and appropriate.

Dan, Bilbo, and today’s public school communities all find themselves in situations that they didn’t design.  I think it was John Lennon (among others) who said that life is what happens while we’re making other plans.  Today’s lesson has me thinking about what really makes me happy in life.  What fulfills my needs and desires?  What distracts me?  What in my life is truly meaningful and what is simply shiny?  Today has me thinking about what I can do to manage my needs and desires so that they are always within my means rather than trying to manage my means to address my needs and desires; A difficult task to be sure, but one that seems worth while.

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