We had lunch a couple of weeks ago with three other Indian couples.
They were saying that it is fatal to let your children work part-time during A levels and University, because once they get “the taste of money” they lose interest in the slow drag and deferred gratification of study.
We were amused. We never really had “the taste of money” until mid-life. Roy’s an academic and I write, which means we were comfortably middle class.
Then, we founded a small publishing 3 years ago, and were stunned to discover that we were actually good at business. And enjoyed it.
And found that the taste of money can be as ruinous for people in their forties as in their teens and twenties. We were no longer content with the salary cap of being in a profession. We enjoyed the world opening out in exotic travel, Norway, New Zealand, Europe, Europe. Enjoyed the massive new conservatory the business paid for.
“Taste and see that the Lord is Good.”
The one thing, however, that we are determined about is that we should never substitute the taste of money for the sweetness of spiritual tastes, or intellectual or creative or artistic tastes. Or the taste for nature. Or people. Or friendship.