once made, no step could
ever retraced; once headed
path would never bend
The horse plodded stumble-footedly up the hill and the old man walked beside it.
In the lowering sun their giant shadows flickered darkly behind them.
The grandfather was dressed in a black broadcloth suit and he wore kid congress gaiters and a black tie on a short, hard collar. He carried his black slouch hat in his hand.
His white beard was cropped close and his white eyebrows overhung his eyes like mustaches.
The blue eyes were sternly merry.
About the whole face and figure there was a granite dignity, so that every motion seemed an impossible thing.
Once at rest, it seemed the old man would be stone, would never move again.
His steps were slow and certain.
Once made, no step could ever be retraced; once headed in a direction, the path would never bend nor the pace increase nor slow.
From The Red Pony by John Steinbeck with illustrations by Wesley Dennis, (New York: Viking, 1945).
Once made, no step could ever be retraced.
Once headed in a direction, the path would never bend nor the pace increase nor slow.
I like to think of a feller named Potiphar.
For those of my readers who didn’t have the benefit of a Sunday School education, Potiphar was the captain of the guard for Pharaoh and when caravans arrived in Egypt with a slave for sale named Joseph, a poor kid sold off by his brothers up in Canaan land, Potiphar bought Joseph and put him to work in his household.
The story of Joseph takes off from there but its Potiphar I think about.
There is so so so much in the news today about money money money and wealth wealth wealth.
In the days of Julius Caesar, the richest man in the world at the time, a feller named Crassus, said the sign of true wealth was your own private army.
Crassus owned the major fire departments in Rome and when you needed them, they would arrive and then tell you how much it would cost to put the fire out.
Closer to our time, the financier John Pierpont Morgan was asked how much his new private yacht cost. This is the Morgan who put together the syndicate that formed US Steel as well as the ship building conglomerate that launched the Titanic and her sister ships Olympic and Britannic. Anyway, when asked about his yacht, the Corsair (which was later converted by the US Navy into a warship for the Spanish-American War) what it cost, Morgan said if you have to ask how much, you can’t afford it.
Today the fellers have private air fleets, private islands and private homes all over the world that proving, each day to be less private then these rich people ever thought.
Back to Potiphar.
Fitting into my definition of the rich person, the Bible tells us that Joseph turned out to be a good purchase and Potiphar turned over his household operations to Joseph and with a good man running his affairs and his position as Captain of guard for Pharaoh, Potiphar …did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
All Potiphar had to do each day was think, ‘what do I want for lunch?’, with full expectation that anything he wanted for lunch today is what he was going to have for lunch today.
How can having $1 Million or $100 Billion in the bank improve on that?
You can’t eat more than one lunch today.
I had a Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich for lunch yesterday.
A sandwich made on bread I baked the day before.
How can having $1 Million or $100 Billion in the bank improve on that?
I am as well off as Mr. Morgan, Crassus or Potiphar.
So you ask, what does this have to do with the quote from the Red Pony?
As I recall, the Red Pony was one of the books read to my sixth grade class by our teacher who started the day with 10 or 15 minutes of reading.
I don’t often think of our teacher, Mr. Vanderwheel, as a liberal type but to read the Steinbeck to a bunch of 6th graders …
But I digress.
Here is the point for today.
I put it to you that the truly well off are those folks who do not concern himself with anything except the food they eat.
What will I have for lunch?
And I put it to you that the only real decision anyone can make each day is what you will have for lunch.
We are all there, because, truly, all the other decisions have been made.
The steps are slow and certain.
Once made, no step could ever be retraced.
Once headed in a direction, the path would never bend nor the pace increase nor slow.
To think we have any control … well Boy Howdy.
All I can say is I hope you enjoy your lunch as this is way too much to think about for a Monday morning.
Oh and BTW … I cannot write about how happy I might be without enormous wealth without thinking of an interview I saw between Dick Cavet and Orson Welles. Mr. Cavet asked Mr. Welles what he would do if he was given a fabulous amount of money, millions of dollars, and Mr. Welles immediately responded, ‘Give it all away!‘ There was a pause and the camera stayed on Mr. Welles and he tucked his chin into his chest, smiled and said very quietly something along the lines of, “… of course my answer would probably be different if it ever actually happened.”
No Haiku For You 