Being Truly Rich Means Having the Freedom and Time To Do What You Want

So maybe a Truly Rich Lady has reached that point where she is super stinky rich, which really should free her from the indignity of having to wake up at the screeching of an alarm clock. And yet she still feels the need to be more. There’s that nagging voice in the back of her head (it sounds like her father’s or mother’s) that compels her to do something.
Maybe she will get involved in one or two select charities or take up a passion project involving the preservation of the environment or cultural heritage, all in an effort to look good on paper and, for some, literally appear good in the (news)papers. Maybe she will take on a gargantuan task like remodeling her house, even if she had just remodeled it two years earlier, just so she has something to do.
I write about this because I remember poor old Millie who was stricken by a malady and then died suddenly. I remember her beautiful brown hair and her strong muscular body. I always made sure to visit Millie whenever I was within reach of the stables of her master, my Truly Rich Friend Mely.
Mely is a classic beauty, also intelligent, very stinky rich, and possesses the ultimate Truly Rich status of “just concentrating on the family.” Her passion is horses. We always joke that Mely, who rides beautifully, knows more about her coterie of stallions and mares
Well, Millie had already made the rounds as an accomplished show horse and had nothing more to prove. But Mely thought the two of them should have one final adventure before they retreated into the leisurely world where days blend into each other.
They trained very hard, as expected, until one day Millie caught a terrible cold and then succumbed a few days later. Mely was distraught.
“Oh, Si-si! I shouldn’t have pushed Millie. It is all my fault,” said Mely when I attended the horse funeral. (The service was lovely and the food sublime.) Later, in her delirium, Mely declared that it did not matter that she had won all these ribbons and trophies now that her best friend was gone.
Who knew anyone could love a horse so much?
But
I laughed nervously because
I ask her, “Why do you this? You can just lie down in bed and be still. Or you can hire professional organizer Mario Kondi to do all this for you?”And she looks at me knowingly and says, “My dear, Si-si, I do this because it makes me happy. I do not want to lie down all day like a cat. Or like you.”
Oh, wow.
So, I guess it is different strokes for different folks. While it is most ideal to embrace the more meaningful form of Truly Richness as the freedom to do what we want—and this entails slowing to halt and not listening to the voices in our heads or the worries in our hearts (Do I have enough? I do!)—some people just enjoy going, going, and going on until they are gone.