(Background: first posted in my Parabolica blog. I'm not sure the link below still works and that is a pity. A great interview with a great philanthropist.)
Street Signs interview with Eli Broad 8/10/10
Anyone who as read very much of my blogs can easily see my struggles with faith in its various forms. This is not an accident. I feel it is one of the strongest bonds we all share, the desire for spirituality in a world that undervalues, misunderstands or feels threatened by it. Sometimes I speak plainly to it, other times I hint at it, but far to rarely am I able to show it, to display it and allow you to reach your own conclusions.
This is one of those rare moments.
The last time I felt the warmth of a person so clearly was President-elect Obama's speech at Grant Park after winning the election. The line that has stuck with me from that moment is,"If we were to look back at our lives, a hundred years from now, how did what we do now make our children's lives better?"
Kurt Vonnegut remarked, "I've stopped going to lectures of people I admire because they always seem smaller in real life than I imagined in my mind and it shatters the illusion." I agree with the majority of that sentiment. When most people speak, it seems to suck the air out of the room. Very few people can actually fill a room and fewer still can fill the people in the room.
The remark of Mr. Broad's that resonated so clearly with me was, "Once your children have all they will ever need, in our family, we believe what Andrew Carnegie said, 'He who dies with wealth dies in shame.'"
Which is the correct answer to the question of wealth.
Thank you Erin and CNBC for that moment of faith, showing not telling.
Street Signs interview with Eli Broad 8/10/10
Anyone who as read very much of my blogs can easily see my struggles with faith in its various forms. This is not an accident. I feel it is one of the strongest bonds we all share, the desire for spirituality in a world that undervalues, misunderstands or feels threatened by it. Sometimes I speak plainly to it, other times I hint at it, but far to rarely am I able to show it, to display it and allow you to reach your own conclusions.
This is one of those rare moments.
The last time I felt the warmth of a person so clearly was President-elect Obama's speech at Grant Park after winning the election. The line that has stuck with me from that moment is,"If we were to look back at our lives, a hundred years from now, how did what we do now make our children's lives better?"
Kurt Vonnegut remarked, "I've stopped going to lectures of people I admire because they always seem smaller in real life than I imagined in my mind and it shatters the illusion." I agree with the majority of that sentiment. When most people speak, it seems to suck the air out of the room. Very few people can actually fill a room and fewer still can fill the people in the room.
The remark of Mr. Broad's that resonated so clearly with me was, "Once your children have all they will ever need, in our family, we believe what Andrew Carnegie said, 'He who dies with wealth dies in shame.'"
Which is the correct answer to the question of wealth.
Thank you Erin and CNBC for that moment of faith, showing not telling.
