The High Notes

Note to Self: Sometimes a bird song in my back yard sounds exactly like a land-line message on the newly functioning telephone in my bedroom. All I can pick up are the high notes.

Today I am pretty sure it is the bird singing to me and not any unwanted land-line caller.

I've been ill the past few days. Stayed home from work yesterday, went in there today but came back at noon. It is probably just a passing thing, I hope. Or maybe the accumulation of a life's illnesses, who knows, and therefore predictable by now. Either way, I am fine to write.

But at my age it's time, finally, to think of the big picture. How I have been conducting myself over the decades? One thing I realized in this context is that I have always been willing to step in for those I love and help them handle their money, their taxes, their investments -- all of that capitalistic stuff.

Why?

Because from a young age I was told I was good at math, and in America, being good at math means being good with money. Plus my Scottish grandfather told me to keep every penny I might find on the street. I found lots of pennies.

I do not think I am very good with money in any modern sense rather than knowing how to save it. Saving is easy -- you just don't spend it.

Americans spend their money here and there, willy-nilly. They do not bother to check their bank balance or to see whether charging their credit card is a bad idea. (It usually is.) That's because we are still the richest people on earth.

But at this rate we will not always be. You cannot afford to spend what you do not have.

How can I teach my children these important lessons? That is what I am podering today. I have a few ideas.

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