At life’s end, who we’ve loved will matter more than what we’ve owned

By David McElroy · August 23, 2011

I can’t seem to escape children lately. It’s not that I’m trying to avoid them, but I seem to see them everywhere I go — happy children and proud parents full of love for those kids.

I don’t have any children yet, but I really want them. Given the circumstances of my life, I might never have any. I’m told that having the right woman agree to be the mother of your children is one of the prerequisites — and that part is beyond my control.

The closest things I’ve had to kids have been my nieces, Katherine and Anna, and my animals, too numerous to mention by name. (The picture above is about four years old. Anna’s the one on the left with the huge grin. The picture below is Anna with me at the Birmingham Zoo.) They live three hours from me, so I don’t see them as often as I’d like, but I love them very much and I’m proud of them. They’re wonderful girls.

Still, I’d like to have my own family. I bring this up partly because the subject of children and family keeps coming up in my life lately, but also because I was thinking about something related to it over the weekend.

Some people live almost purely for the material world and to experience the sensations the physical world offers. They’re mostly interested in wealth, status, power, ego and their material place in the world. Other people — although fewer than ever — live almost purely for a world of spirit or meaning or love. These people are mostly interested in experiencing God or understanding why they’re here or finding purpose through loving and serving others.

Most of us are somewhere in the middle, but it seems that even though the reality of our lives is some combination of the two, most people tend to identify with one world or the other — and they keep the two in separate “boxes” in their minds, as though the two are mutually exclusive. I’d like to suggest that it’s more reasonable to integrate the two words instead.

Most of what we talk about here is about ideas and principles and power and rights and money. Every one of those is a very important part of this physical world. For as long as we’re on this Earth, those things will matter. Even for those of us who are Christians (or believe in some other kind of afterlife), there’s no reasonable way to set aside the importance of many things in this world. To do so would go against the vast bulk of Christian and Jewish history. More than anything, it would be a very Gnostic thing to do.

But there are things ultimately more important than any of the material things of the world. I want money and I want freedom and I want a place to live and grow with other people. But more than anything, I want to love and be loved. I want to do things of lasting value that will be meaningful to other people after my death. And I want to live in a way consistent with my faith in God. He didn’t put me in just one world or the other. He made me a spiritual creature and a physical creature. I want to integrate those in ways that will cause God to one day say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

I’d like to be able to accumulate money and power over time, but it’s not necessarily to live like a king or be better than anyone else. I want those things because they’re the tools that work in this world to build things that last over time. They don’t endure beyond this world, but if they’re used properly, they can make this world a better place for future generations. When I talk about freedom and a safe place to live, it’s not just for us. It’s for the generations that come after us, too.

When I die, I hope I’ll be able to know that I was the “good and faithful servant” who multiplied his earthly talents, because I want to leave the world a materially better place for others. But when that time comes, I don’t want to be surrounded by stacks of gold or nice essays or even books and films I might have written. By that point, those things won’t matter to me.

I’ll want to know that I’m loved by the people I’m leaving behind. I’ll want to know that I’ve loved — honestly loved — all that I’m capable of. I’ll want to know I’ve made the best of this world that I could and that I’ve been faithful to what I believe God has called me to be. If I do that, I can die a happy man.

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The company that owns Facebook and Instagram is heavily promoting its new AI-based software assistant called Muse, but people who are using it as it was designed are incredibly foolish. An early adopter of the software discovered that a few days ago when he advertised an item for sale on Facebook Marketplace — and he inadvertently gave Muse full authority to act on his behalf. The software agreed to a lowball offer made by another Facebook user and then gave that man the home address of the man for whom he was an agent. The software told the buyer that the seller was home and waiting for him. When the buyer showed up and waited angrily, the would-be buyer left an angry review for the man. And this angry man had the seller’s home address. It was only well after that that the software reported what it had done and admitted it had made a mistake. I won’t be putting that much power into the hands of any software. I think anyone who agrees to such terms is a fool. And the software’s user agreement says you’re responsible for purchases the software makes in your name. Nope.

Meet my new girlfriend. Her name is Meg. And she’s my little sweetheart. A couple of months ago, a neighbor across the street told me about a new stray in the neighborhood that she and I were both soon feeding. The cat had been very skittish about contact and she had a lot of scabs and parasites in her fur, but a trip to the vet last week revealed that she was otherwise in good health. The vet estimates her to be 1 to 2 years old. I named her for Meg Murry, the 13-year-old protagonist of Madeleine L’Engle’s wonderful book, “A Wrinkle in Time.” (Please read the book. Don’t watch the horrible movie.) Since we lost Lucy almost a year ago, it seems appropriate that we finally have a new little girl to join the household. She’s already captured my heart, but Alex, Oliver and Sam aren’t there quite yet.

There’s nothing socially acceptable that’s as dangerous as drinking alcohol. Most people grow up being told to “drink responsibly” — and all of us see people abusing this drug in one way or another — but the truth is that drinking alcohol is always a terrible risk. The alcohol in these drinks is toxic and the human liver has to work hard to filter the toxins out. What most people don’t realize is that alcohol is classified as a known carcinogen by the World Health Organization — because of the well-established connection between imbibing and various cancers. Many people have taken refuge behind the idea that light or moderate drinking might be safe, but a new study shows that drinking even one drink a day increases the risks of 10 types of cancer. When I was a teen-ager, I looked around and saw the negative effects that this behavior had on a lot of people and decided not to start drinking, so I’ve never even tried this poison. The evidence keeps piling up that I was lucky to have come to that conclusion early.

It turns out that the radical far left has been training “Antifa cats” to sabotage anything important to Donald Trump. Everything he did was perfect. Honest. It was all the cats’ fault. Arrest all the cats! This is the latest of my ridiculous satirical shorts. Please go watch it. Then “like” it and subscribe. Please. I’m begging you. (Too much?) Although a couple of the previous videos have had views in the hundreds, most have still been seen by fewer than 20 people. So I seem to be having trouble letting people know that page exists.

Here’s the latest of my ridiculous parody shorts. It crossed my mind Tuesday to wonder what a slick and fast-talking car dealer might do right now to try to turn the high price of gasoline to his advantage. So I conceived of a fat and lovable character who tried to sell cars that don’t use any fuel — and then I started wondering if it would be funnier if all the characters were felines. Designing the King Cashpaw character took about four hours, but the rest took only another four hours, so this was a relatively quick piece that virtually wrote itself. I know it’s almost impossible for these parody videos to find a larger audience, but at least they amuse me — and there are 19 of them on my YouTube page now. The first few were very limited, but they’re getting more complex.

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