Burning Cash
You can't eat fireworks.
“Is that money burning a hole in your pocket?”
I doubt my parents had read Sir Thomas Moore’s Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1530). According to the Google Machine, the idiom I heard often as a youngster is an adaption of Moore’s,
A little wanton money,
which burned out the bottom of his purse.
My grandchildren have heard that line from me. Birthday money, Christmas money, MAD money can’t be spent fast enough.
“Is that money burning a hole in your pocket?”
A fellow in line for our food pantry asked how I was doing. He wondered if we had big plans for Saturday. Would I would be setting off fireworks come the 4th. I told him that while we may have had a few fire works as kids, I could still hear someone tell me,
“You might as well take a match to your cash.’
Before you recoil thinking, “How cruel!” the fellow took my response and ran with it. He and his friend could not agree more. I could not hear the reply within the car but it sounded someithing likle, “Gone in less than 60 seconds.”
It is not news that consumer prices are up. Everyone that budgets feels the pinch. Some more than others. One fellow who may not be too concerned about the price of a gallon of gas or milk stopped by a local fireworks stand. He told the folks manning the counter that he wanted to donate $100 to a young person or family that might be experiencing hard times. He wanted them to enjoy the 4th. Raise their spirits.
Money did not burn a hole in his pocket. He did not mind that it would be gone from his hand and into another’s in less than 60 seconds. He hoped that his anonymous gift would brighten a moment in time. And I am sure it will. Anyone who has watched young people’s eyes glisten while sparklers burn or brace for the pop of a firecracker knows that sight.
The nagging thought that $100 would buy food that would last longer than a Roman Candle is real. School is less than two months away. What clothes would $100 buy for that new school outift? It is not that we should begrudge what someone wants to do with their money. How or to what end we give our money away is an individual’s prerogative. But in our land of the free and home of the brave, all experiences are not eqaul. If we notice that reality, that some have needs others might meet, is it out of bounds to suggest we might think beyond what might be gone in 60 seconds when responding to the urge to give our money away?
A family in need, experiencing difficult times, that faces an uncertain future, will enjoy the gift of a stranger.
They could have had more.
Amen