The simple fisherman

I got into a debate with a friend of mine the other day while discussing things like the meaning of life, etc. So here I present to you a dramatized version of the conversation:

Her: One day a Harvard professor of Economics–

Me: Great. Harvard. Economics. But I bet he’s the fool–

Her: So this professor from Harvard is on a beach and he sees a fisherman coming home early, earlier than the other fishermen who are still fishing, and playing with his kids. He goes up to the fisherman and asks him why he came home so early. The fisherman told him it’s so it’s he could play with his kids. “But if you stay out there longer, you can get more fish,” the Economics professor from Harvard argued. “You can then buy bigger boats, hire more men, get more fish, and so on.” “But what would I do with all those money and boats?” “Well, you can … ” and here the professor was stuck. Then he said, “Well, you can spend time playing with your kids.”

Me: The next day the fisherman found out his youngest daughter has leukemia.

Okay, so it’s very shortened and tidied-up version and I definitely came off as a lot wittier than I actually were during the conversation. But the point is, as much as I like to simplify life and get to the basics, sometimes there are certain realities that can’t or shouldn’t be ignored. Yes, the pursuit of money can be ugly–after all, the biblical quote wasn’t “money is the source of all evil” but that “the love of money is the source of all evil”–but the simple fisherman in her story, to me, came off as a simplistic, ignorant fool, not to mention selfish as he’s obviously not thinking of the long-term physical/material survival of his family.

He could’ve had more fish, more boats, more men, and he wouldn’t even have to work so he can even more time with all his kids. But to this she said, “But he’s already doing that. And plus, he won’t be playing with his kids for that 10 or 20 years while he builds his empire.”

Not that I thought of this at the time, but that sounds a whole lot like, “Well, I’ve got a burlap sack. Why would I want to work to get proper clothes? I’m still covered-up right?”