| p>That the hot pursuit of money can pull someone | | | | as he tried to give me three pencils. I said ...no, sell |
| away from all other matters in life is now becoming | | | | those to someone else, and then I ran. My mother |
| more obvious in America. Some people who have | | | | scolded me when I explained what I had done but I |
| made their first million and more are turning to | | | | couldn't hear her very well. All I could do is to think |
| something else for fulfillment. Some are becoming | | | | about that man and his condition for hours, even days |
| volunteers, others are joining religious movements and | | | | to come. Up to then I had paid little attention to higher |
| still others are giving their money away to help those | | | | morals, right and wrong or religious teachings. I was |
| less fortunate. Why is this happening? | | | | just too busy being a boy. What made me stop and |
| I have traveled through a lot of the world and have | | | | give him the money puzzled me for years. I know now |
| developed an obvious bias when it comes to | | | | it was something I am made of and not something I |
| Americans. Besides being the most stubborn, silly and | | | | learned. |
| obstinate people on earth I am sure they are the | | | | That is what I mean about Americans although not all. |
| kindest people as well. The level of caring for others | | | | They are made of something different. I can only |
| here outshines anything I have seen worldwide. On the | | | | guess that it the grace of God still lingering on a nation |
| collective level Americans often raise more money | | | | that hasn't given up completely on things that are right |
| and send more aid to foreign countries than their own | | | | and faith in a living God. When they do turn from these |
| governments raise to help. On the personal level the | | | | things it seems they don't notice it too well because |
| stories of generosity and kindness are countless. It is a | | | | they do it by degrees. With the distraction of so much |
| matter of the heart I'm sure. | | | | information and education along with the profusion of |
| As a boy my mother drove me to the town square to | | | | entertainment and recreational options it seems |
| do a few errands with her. She told me to go to the | | | | Americans are drifting. They aren't just drifting from |
| news stand and buy her daily paper while she went to | | | | higher principles but from higher purpose. They are |
| do an errand. I wandered slowly down the street | | | | learning what everything is made of but forgetting |
| window shopping as I went with my imagination in high | | | | what they are made of. |
| gear, it was Christmas time and I was dreaming of all | | | | Some temptations are more universal than others. |
| the things I though Id like to have at that time when it | | | | Most people will not become Presidents or statesmen |
| was most likely I might get them. | | | | and most will not become well known actors or |
| I was within a block of the news stand clutching the | | | | performers. But many people realize that in today's |
| fifteen cents tightly in my hand for the paper. I passed | | | | booming economy there is opportunity to become |
| by the doorway of an unoccupied building and there | | | | very rich. At the very least there is opportunity to |
| sitting on a tiny wooded platform was a legless man. | | | | get...just a little bit more. |
| Shabbily dressed and unshaven he sat shivering in the | | | | If the unbridled pursuit of just a little more money can |
| cold with an old tin can in front of him stuffed with a | | | | pull people away from God's message to them, then it |
| few yellow pencils. He called out...pencils...five cents. I | | | | is reasonable to think that it can pull them away from |
| froze in my tracks and gazed at him. My emotions | | | | many other things as well...even themselves or who |
| were a rock hitting the calm waters of a pool sending | | | | they really are. |
| splashes and effects everywhere at once. I had not | | | | And that which fell among thorns are they, which, |
| seen anything like that yet in my life. | | | | when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with |
| A sense I could not explain or describe gripped my | | | | cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no |
| heart. I gave him the fifteen cents and stepped back | | | | fruit to perfection. |