Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Friday, March 1, 2019
BEING PAID
BEING PAID IS PRIMARY
A Bison brother and fellow lawyer had once asked me a compelling question at a National Bar Assn. legal seminar and retreat in the Bahamas on Solo Practice and Small Business that we attended.
I had shown, shared with him, some of my philosophical, cosmological, writings that I had brought along.
He actually enjoyed them! Smiling broadly he said, "Larry, you are a very deep brother. Indeed, you are a heavy brother! But, Larry, how are you going to get paid?" he asked .
"Ding!" I paused at its gravity. Paid? I had not thought of my being paid!
A bell went off. Frankly, I had not conceived of being paid. So, I had no idea, answer! Even so, God has supplied all of my needs according to his riches in glory, I happily note!
That true story was brought back to mind recently, when I read a like tenor passage in THE INVENTION OF NATURE: ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT'S NEW WORLD (2015) by Andrea Wulf, who wrote :
"Humboldt desperately needed the money from his annual stipend because the cost of his publications had left him , he admitted, 'poor as a church mouse.' He had to live on what he earned but he was useless when it came to his finances. 'The only thing in heaven or earth that M. Humboldt does 'not' understand,' his English translator had remarked, 'is business.'"
P.215.
As it was with Von Humboldt in the early 1800s, so is it with me, 2019!