money

At a party recently, I was having a conversation with a person who I had only just met. From what he was saying, it seemed as though he was extremely intelligent and self-assured. It also seemed as though he was incredibly wealthy.

As a group began to form around us, he started to tell a story. The main point of it was something bland about his kid’s school, which seemed to interest the others. Almost as an aside, he noted that someone had done something he had experienced as displeasing, so he had had that person fired. As he recounted the tale, the others nodded, seemingly not troubled in the least. I just stood there. Sort of frozen. In my head I was shouting: ARE YOU FOR REAL?!!

But the thing is, and this is a Big Thing: I didn’t say anything.

It has been almost a month now and I am still thinking about it. Thinking about why I didn’t act. It has really been bothering me.

I have been doing a whole lot of reading to try and make sense of it. I have found myself gravitating towards explorations of wealth. Was that what it was? Was it his wealth that made him think that he could so negatively affect the life of another, for so trivial a slight? And what was it that left me mute? Does wealth speak of control and power so eloquently that it can leave me defenceless, even if I consciously reject ascribing such command to the having of money?

I just don’t know. [I’ll get back to you].