One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

" It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered , "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends! Please pass this page on to friends and acquaintances to help them refresh their perspective and appreciation.

"Life is too short and friends are too few."

Good post, excellent.

How true, wouldn't it be good if others saw life that way.

Lovely, Ace. A grand perspective. Thanks.

And don't forget the soup - they ate tons of soup.

Ka-ching! Got it in one.

Thanks for an interesting post.....prefectly true!

I'd still sooner be rich, nice post though.

You are rich... you've got me as a friend!!!!!

True, true, and several other friends that make me rich in the non-financial sense.

But I could go for being rich as in 'has a huge amount of money' sense as well.

Oh that's easy... just don't spend any money!

Been trying that for years.

So I've heard... it working?

Well, that was eye opening! Thanks Ace!

Nah, still got bills to pay.

Hm, interesting point of view.

The story is amusing the point is valid... I seem to remind a very dear friend of this often.

You mean yourself?