Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Root of all Evil

Today I read two intriguing and thought provoking articles. The first was about a former classmate of mine from my undergraduate university. He had a an opportunity to make money with his small one man travel business. He was set to make a nice commission on a trip he planned for a group of students. However, he wanted more. He decided to take the money and invest it. His investment didn't pay off and he panicked. Which is understandable but he allowed his one bad decision to fuel more bad decisions leading to wire and credit fraud. That lead to him ending up on a federal indictment and being sentenced to 33 months in a Federal Penitentiary. It is sad to see a young man go through this and end up with a record. I do hope he is able to turn his life around and make something better of himself. But what caused him to do this? The love of money. The hunger for more and more money. Greed, the love of money is the root of all evil. While I am sure this young man did not intend to do wrong, he allowed the love of money to blind him and make poor choices.

The other story I read was about a man who was a multi-millionaire who started out with very poor beginnings. He spent a good portion of his life in pursuit of material things. He realized that his possessions and money did not make him happy. He realized what many of us fail to realize, is that money does not buy happiness. So he is giving away every last cent and going to live out a simple life at a bed and breakfast. He is in pursuit of something that money can't buy, which is peace of mind and true inner happiness. I believe his philosophy is something we all can learn from.

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