Since, if thou darest not use thy store,
But savest only for thine heirs,
The treasure is not thine, but theirs.
The poem Treasure by Lucillius, and translated by William Cowper, does not, I believe convey a proper point of view on what one must truly treasure. It is not what I can get out of life, but rather what I can give to life. What I leave behind. This is what a "legacy" is all about. So it is that to leave as a legacy a family who is cared after one is gone is greater treasure than to indulge in personal riches gained by oneself and kept for oneself. This poem does away with the maxim that it is "better to give, than to receive" and we know that although it is sometimes hard it is always true.
I was reading in Ecclesiastes and this verse struck me because I had read your blog a few days ago...
ReplyDeleteEccl. 2:20-21
"So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This is also vanity and a great evil."
Reading the entire book feels like Solomon's Blog. =)