My 1st Million At 33 – yes, you can do it too

Not sure if any of you catch this story from NPR (national public radio). A homeless person gave $400,000 to NPR, and several other nonprofit organization.

Richard Leroy Walters was a retired engineer from AlliedSignal Corp, but who gave up all the materialism of this world, and what could be afforded to him. Didn’t have a car (but a bike), nor a home, but looks like he did own several stock-related investment, trading over the phone at the senior center. He was an “avowed atheist” but converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. It’s amazing that someone who owned so much, and yet didn’t take any enjoyment of any materialism, while mostly remained atheistic in that process. I have always thought that if someone is atheistic, he or she must take comfort in material things. I guess there are different higher souls.

There are some readers’ comments in NPR website, a few criticizing Walters using resources for homeless people. I must say that after all, Walters gave more than he had received (whether it was given before or after his death). For many, we don’t remember that whether we own a lot of money or owe a lot of debt, when it comes to living in this world, we are consuming resources and relying on others constantly. Our debt to this world is our consumption, whether we pay it fully or not. What would be better served besides paying in full with our hard-earned money is a grateful attitude towards everything that we received.

My wife is currently on vacation with my kids, and these days, I just cook my own simple meals, and bag my own lunchbox: rice plus tofu most of the time. I barely spend any money besides gasoline. I’m perfectly content without many unnecessary stuffs. When I wash the uncooked rice, I am always reminded a Chinese saying: “every grain of rice doesn’t come easy but with sweats of the farmers”. That was of course from the ancient days when many farming was not done through modern day machinery. Regardless, I’m grateful for the abundance of food that I can eat, for there are still too many hungry people in the world.

Oh, yeah, one of my few consumption besides meals is that I did buy a new book from local bookstore, knowingly over-paying $10 for it relative to Amazon.com. Since I frequent that bookstore, I hope that extra $10 goes to their pocket so that they won’t go out of business one day.

I admire what Richard Leroy Walters did. For his gifts, the world was made better.