JCK-at-large SITE

I was putting myself in the cleats of Bo Bichette, shortstop extraordinaire of the now, alas, New York Mets.  What if they offered you $126 million over three years, with a $40-million signing bonus — what would you do with it?  I think I convinced myself, for a fleeting moment at least, that I might turn it down.

Like there’s the beauty of a normal life to think about.  A sprawling red-brick house like the one I grew up in, with a front porch and an attic in a leafy neighbourhood in a nice town; kids having fun with the street hockey games and snowball fights with other kids, walking off to school through the autumn leaves with plenty of bypasses on the way, and taking piano lessons from Miss Mitchell around the block.  Old geesers got to walk down to the coffee shop on Elgin Street early mornings and shoot the breeze with some of the town neighbours and friends.  Come summer, getting to the Ottawa river to catch perch with your friends and get burnt to a crisp.  Stepping out to your local family restaurant. Taking your car in for oil changes and brake jobs and walking around under the jacks.  Hanging your own Christmas lights….

In fact, I thought of Nathan Eovaldi, another multi-millionaire baseball player, who was up on the roof hanging his Christmas lights when his agent phoned:

“Nathan, we’ve got good news, where are you?”

“I’m on the roof hanging my Christmas lights.”

“Listen, get off that roof!  You’re not going to need to do that anymore.”  Another multi-million dollar contract had landed.

But right there is the whole problem with multi-millions.  They take you off your own roof.  You can no longer do the stuff that normal people enjoy in all four seasons.  Hauling in a Christmas tree; going to the community skating rink and keeping an eye on your fries.  Neighbourhood block parties; coaching the Pee-Wee team; blowing off your neighbours driveway; joining a community fundraiser; pitching in at the food-bank; generally poking around….

Thanks to the mega-contract you now need to hire security; you need to live in an ‘exclusive’ neighbourhood with round the clock entry codes, send your kids to private schools and wear a disguise when you go to pick them up.  You’re certainly not going to ride the escalator at the mall or the airport for fear of being swarmed and causing major injuries.  Sunglasses and a hat, escorts wherever, private limos — it’s horrible. 

On top of that, there is the pressure to perform at the highest level!  Lest you become like that Oriole First Baseman, whose name no one can even remember.  He had the team he once loved over the barrel for mega-millions over infinite years — while he was mostly riding the bench! For his hopeless play!  He contributed to more losses than wins!  What could be worse than that?  

“Why not walk away for the good of the game?,” someone asked. 

 “Well we have commitments, you see… including a charitable organisation with a very big vision.”  Give me a break.  

That’s why I say it’s better to turn the money down.  Or maybe say to the agent, “I want my normal life.  Put that money away in some kind of trust for a rainy day and don’t tell a soul about it.  No publicity.”  That way your life continues as normal.

It reminds me of Clara, a very old member of our church back in the seventies.  Clara enjoyed her modest rooming house lifestyle, out to church regularly, even joining us on a tour to Israel with her cane.  Then somebody left her a bunch of money in an estate settlement.  This was a problem she had not asked for.

“What am I going to do with money?,” she asked with alarm.  “I never wanted money!  I never asked for money!”   I’m sure we gave her some ideas that might help.  But that’s the whole point.  Sometimes money creates more problem than it solves.  

Oh, nobody believes that any more.  Old Tevye speaks for the world at large in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ — “If money is a curse, may God smite me with it and may I never recover!”  That’s why we need voices from a different world, prophetic voices from long ago, to help us: 

Lowborn men are but a vapour, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up;  together they are but a vapour.,,,, If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.  God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,… 

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where  thieves break in and steal.   But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth  and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your  treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.  When you  glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God  has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

Looked at that way, the greatest contract offer you’ll ever receive might be the very liberating offer to divest! 

“ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).