A Guest at Our Table
Rev. Darcey Laine, paraphrased from "The house where rich people live", a story by Byrd Baylor
November 19, 2000

One Wednesday Night, Margie called a family meeting.

"I've noticed, she said, that while the other families in our neighborhood have fancy cars, we do not. Kim's family went to Hawaii for vacation, and we just went to see Aunt Francis in Arnold. Moreover, I was the last kid in my class to get a laser scooter."

"I think it's clear that you guys need to get better jobs with stock options, because we just don't have enough money."

"Well," said her mom, "let's make up a spread sheet on our net worth, so we can see what we're dealing with here. If you want to make any real money, you've got to know what your assets are. So you can write down in this column the $30,000 I make working at the school."

And said her dad, "put down under it the $28,000 I made working at the homeless shelter."

"But under that, be sure to put down the $5,000 I save because I can walk to work each day."

"Yes," said her mother, "How much should we allot for the time I spend with you in the summer when we go hiking in the hills during summer vacation? I figure that's worth at least $10,000."

"What about the beautiful flowers in our garden out back," said dad, "I smell the flowers and hear the singing birds every day, how much do you suppose that's worth Margie?"

At first Margie thought her parents were being kind of silly, but she decided to play along. "Well, I guess that's worth about $2000 dad," Margie said. "And what about having 2 parents who love me, I figure you guys are worth at least one million bucks a piece!"

"Well, then put down 2 million for yourself Margie, because I figure we each love you about a million bucks worth."

Well this went on into the night as they sat and they figured out the net worth of their family. When they finally ran out of things to list, and had eaten a huge bowl of popcorn and all the Oreos, Margie totaled the sheet

"All in all, it looks like we're worth about $7.8 million," she said. "I guess I feel a little foolish. I didn't realize how much we had. Yes, said her mom, sometimes we all forget to be grateful for how rich we are. But I'm glad you reminded us."

"Do you think we still need to get new jobs?" asked her dad.