A Conversation with a Wealthy Man

A Conversation with a Wealthy Man by debgrant

I had a conversation with a wealthy man. I hadn’t spoken to him in over 30 years. I asked him one question.

“What is important for me to know about you right now?’

He said, “what a great question.”

That is a great way to start. It honors the question. It gives the response time to breathe like opening a bottle of wine.

He told me about how he met his wife.

He marked time in his story by saying before his girls were born or after.

He told me about a neighbor with whom he politically disagreed. How recently he found some humanity in himself and the neighbor working an outdoor chore together.

He listened to the pieces of my stories picked from a basket of 30 years.

I told him turning 40 was hard because I was still unsure of who I was and who I wanted to be. He listened. He understood. He was approaching 50.

He told me he loved the atmosphere of high church liturgy, struggled with everything else about the church. Shopped around for better fits and still feels churchless and saddened by his own lostness and the lost opportunities of the Christian communities at this moment in time.

I watched him greet his wife & girls returning from a shoe shopping trip. He introduced them to me through the phone screen. They filled the room and the space between our rooms with glee.

I saw him take notes when I mentioned a book that helped me in my own lostness.

I experienced his gentle presence.

I had a conversation with a wealthy man. I don’t know about his bank account. What I know is what he chose to tell me in a conversation after 30 years. I know that he values his humanity and grieves it in himself when it falters. He values the gleeful humans with whom he shares this life. He values the humanity of his neighbor with whom he still disagrees. He values the presence of God especially when it just gives him time to sit and be the mystery and the miracle of his own humanity.

I had a conversation with a wealthy man. He said, “Let’s not wait another 30 years before we talk again.”

I said, “Yes, let’s not wait.”

###