Have you ever daydreamed about what it would be like to be wealthy?
I don’t mean comfortable, upper middle-class, big house wealthy. I mean “what am I going to do with all this money” wealthy. I mean “I just won the power-ball all by myself” wealthy.
What would you buy for yourself? For your family and friends?
What causes would you support?
Would you want to be noticed and recognized for your generosity or would you prefer to remain anonymous?
One of the Broadway musicals that I have seen multiple times (and never miss a chance to see it live) is Fiddler on the Roof. With lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, music by Jerry Bock, and book by Joseph Stein, it opened on Broadway in 1964.
I performed in it in high school in 1978 and saw my son perform in it in college in 2009, so it has an extra special place in my heart.
The lead character, Tevye, is a poor milkman in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Russia. One of the most endearing (for me) parts of the show is the frank conversations Tevye has with God.
In one of the most well-known scenes, Tevye says, “Dear God, you made many poor people. I realize, of course, that it is no shame to be poor but it’s no great honor either. So what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?”
And then he sings, “If I Were a Rich Man.”
In the song he first dreams of the material comforts that wealth would bring—no more hard work, a big house (including a staircase “leading nowhere, just for show”), a yard full of poultry (“rich” is relative, after all) that would let everyone in the neighborhood hear the evidences of his wealth.
His second dream is how his wealth would benefit his wife—she’d have a “proper double chin” (presumably from having more than enough to eat) and servants at whom she could scream day and night as she happily supervised their work.
The third dream is of the respect that wealth would bring him—important people asking for his advice on important matters. And whether his answers were right or wrong really wouldn’t matter because “when you’re rich they think you really know.”
The ultimate dream, the ”sweetest thing of all,” would be leisure time (severely lacking in his real world) to pray and “discuss the holy books with learned men seven hours every day.”
Maybe there’s a little Tevye in all of us. We wonder what life would be like if we had more.
I know I do.
But here’s what I don’t want us to miss: “the sweetest thing of all.”
Tevye’s self-identified “sweetest thing” is uninterrupted hours for prayer and learning/discussing ultimate truth.
He never gets it.
But what he already has—as demonstrated throughout the show—is ongoing conversation with God in the middle of his real world of hard work, challenging circumstances, and unanticipated change.
Maybe he was already a rich man and didn’t even know it.
Maybe we are as well.
Be amazing today, my friend.
Pursuing Amazingness
This week I’m encouraging you to look at wealth from a different perspective. How are you already rich?
