We gathered again at 2:00 PM for a belated Christmas dinner with family and friends. Since we had already done turkey, Michelle decided to cook Italian. Michelle provided lasagna and Sheila brought chicken picatta. The chicken piccata was particularly good. The night before when Sheila decided to make it, I asked her if we had white wine for the sauce. She said that we did. No problem. But yesterday when she was cooking, I examined the bottle she was going to use. It was the last half bottle of my home-brewed sweet white that I was saving for sipping purposes. Oh well, it went for a good cause. Michelle made tiramisu from scratch. It was airy, fluffy and decadent. I only had a tablespoon but that was enough for me to declare it delicious. It was a good meal in pleasant company.
As we were sitting at the table, I was again reminded of the fact that I may not be around long enough to get my know my grandson Ben or for him to get to know me. Last year, I left a Christmas letter that hopefully he will read someday. I think I will do that again this year:
Dear Ben:
This year, aside from the usual toys and paraphernalia, I gave you two silver coins to commemorate your second Christmas with us. They are not normal circulated coins. Rather they are .999 pure silver. Next year, I hope to give you two on your second birthday and three on your third Christmas and so on in the years following. If I continue doing this, after a while, there should be enough money for you to do something nice for yourself when you are old enough to appreciate it.
There are lessons in my gift that I hope to pass on. Two ounces of pure silver cost a little over fifty dollars at spot market prices last week. I am betting that, no matter what happens to the U.S. currency in the future, those coins will at least hold most of their residual value if not increase in value considerably. The two cute plastic toys we bought for you cost about the same. Granted, you will have a wonderful time pushing a ball popping lawnmower around the living room and chasing the electronic sensor equipped talking cat around the house. But, the minute you opened the packaging, their value dropped to a couple of bucks at a garage sale. If you have extra money, there is nothing wrong with exchanging part of it for a little fun. But, that must always be tempered with the necessity of acquiring things of lasting value. A lot of so-called wealth today is nothing more than marks on a piece of paper or bits of information in a computer. This kind of "wealth" can be declared by fiat and just as easily disappear by fiat.
As we sat around the dining room table, we were discussing the fact that you have a mild case of anemia. I shared the fact that I did too when I was a child but mine was due to insufficient protein in my diet. We were that poor for a while when I was a baby. Things like that are hard to imagine but they happened. My father, your great grandfather Kumpe, had badly disfigured legs due to rickets, another childhood disease due to malnutrition. That kind of poverty leaves a lasting mark on the people who experience it.
Later, I watched my mom and dad, your great-grandmother and grandfather Kumpe, do without the normal pleasures of life to buy land, another investment that always has residual value. They were badly taken advantage of in many of those transactions but that was the way of things in their time and they didn't have the means to fight back. But, they were able to endure it because they had suffered far worse. If there was food on the table, a roof over their heads, a fire to keep them warm and clothes enough to go out, they figured they were ahead of the game from where they had been.
It is mistake to assume that the heirs of a family farm are simply given an asset. Every generation has to pay its dues to the land to deserve its stewardship. As a child and young adult, I worked the farm hauling hay, feeding cattle, doing vaccinations and castrations and the million and one other things that are necessary to make it work. When other kids were staying after school for activities, I came home, threw a few bales of hay and cooked supper for mom and dad. There was nobody else to do it. In order to pay for the land, mom and dad both had to work in the factories in Ft. Smith. So, I came up as rural latch key kid. My childhood was not unpleasant, just lonely. I grew up more in the company of books, television and radio than other children.
I paid my dues for the land again after dad died. I was the sales manager for a large computer company in St. Louis when dad passed and the company was already talking to me about my next move up. St. Louis had been a tough assignment. However, I had acquired powerful friends in management and proven that I could make it in the big city. But, after dad's passing, mom could not be left completely alone. I had to be nearby. She wanted to live alone and think that she was independent but she also needed somebody close by to pick up the pieces and keep her on as even a keel as could be managed. That kind of family duty can't be phoned in. So, I took a lower position with another computer company that would let me stay in Eastern Oklahoma. My career in the computer industry never came back.
You may someday inherit a little bit of that land. That remains to be seen. I will not do to you what my Mom did to me. She lived in poverty to pass the land on to me when I would have much preferred for her to sell part or all of it so that she could lived in some degree of comfort in her old age. Dad would have wanted it that way. But, she just couldn't part with it. But, whether you inherit a bit of it or not, I hope that your great grandmother and grandfather Kumpe's example of sacrifice to invest things of permanent value will not be lost on you.
Perhaps, the underlying lesson here is that every man of substance has three sets of duties. The first is to his God. The second is to his family. The third is to his country. You have to do your duty (pay your dues) to each for your life to be in balance. Men who shirk these duties have no honor. There is no guarantee that you will be successful by the world's definition even if you do your best in each of these duties. But, I can tell you from personal experience that if you do, you will be able to sleep peacefully at night and not be ashamed of the man you see in the mirror the next morning.
Merry Christmas Little Ben. God Bless.
Grandpa Bill
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