Matsubara Naoko: Page from Hagoromo [Feathered Robe] (1984-86)

" … the burden of being the wealthiest …"

If I were the wealthiest person in the world, I would be better at it than the present incumbent has been. I would not become a right-wing troll, promote senseless conspiracy theories, or be even the slightest bit stingy. I would gladly give away most of my wealth and freely share my good fortune. I wouldn't own a private jet, but fly commercial coach, asking for the middle seat in the last row, and hope to find a new mother with her cranky baby seated next to me. I would live to surprise my fellow human beings, for I would dedicate myself to being a truly human being. I'd be the most benevolent person anyone ever remembers, a saint, a gem.

As it is, I am not now nor am I ever likely to share the challenges the world's richest person faces. I cannot honestly even relate to those difficulties, for who serves as the role model for the only one currently in existence? Does a league of the world's wealthiest people exist where they share handy tips for coping with that role's challenges, where people learn how to want a private super yacht and fourteen fabulous homes? Where one comes to understand excess and its perverting influences? Where one might receive instruction on how to live as if they're an average person even though they're the wealthiest person in the world?

If I could be honest with myself, I might conclude that the very last thing I might want to be would be to become the wealthiest person in town, let alone in the world. The richest seem to purchase more problems than anyone else, even if I don't consider the weaseling around the infamous taxman every richest person seems to become obsessed with avoiding. As it stands, I revel in the taxman visiting, for he reminds me that I'm still solvent without taking more than I can easily afford, even at his reportedly excessive rates. Excess seems to render people paranoid. Too much leaves folks worse off than the poorest, with nothing left to lose and so little fear of losing anything anymore. They might even be considered the wealthiest people in the world, except for their obvious lack of liquid assets.

I thought I would be more benevolent than thou if I were the wealthiest person in the world, but who insists I'm not? I might not possess the biggest bank account, but I hold my share and more of other, perhaps less fungible, wealth. I hold more of myself than anybody else has ever held in the entire history of this world. I could be a crown of creation all by myself, so I might consider attempting to be more benevolent than thou all by myself. Others might be better endowed with other kinds of wealth, but not one holds even a quarter as much of me as I possess. I figure that I might just as well share that. I could be the most Successful sovereign fund ever sharing excess assets. No real need for me to feel even the slightest bit of Envy for those unfortunates who carry the burden of being the wealthiest in terms of only money. How utterly boring their lives must be!

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Tags: #Success, #PureSchmaltz