{"id":12429,"date":"2017-07-28T16:42:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T20:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/?p=12429"},"modified":"2017-08-02T09:34:51","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T13:34:51","slug":"love-not-money-richest-man-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/","title":{"rendered":"For Love and Not Money: How to Be the Richest Man in Town"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Frank<\/a><\/p>\n

People will do great good for love that they would never do for money. That is one thing Frank Capra taught me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frank Capra loved us, regular people, even though he was an extraordinary man. He used his great gifts to celebrate our simple lives, but he also taught some truths that we need just now. Capra knew that a man will sacrifice for love what he would never give up for money. He also knew that money could not buy friendship and that friends are a great\u00a0asset.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

My favorite Capra film on that theme is\u00a0You Can\u2019t Take it With You,<\/i>\u00a0in which the daughter of an eccentric family marries into a rich, socially elite family. Eventually, the sheer power of the wise grandfather\u2019s many friendships outweighs the power of the banker\u2019s money. <\/span><\/p>\n

Frank Capra taught me how to be the richest man in town.<\/span><\/h4>\n

And then there is the one most people have seen, that classic of the Capra oeuvre,\u00a0It\u2019s a Wonderful Life.<\/i>\u00a0In this film, Capra again puts a value on friendship and finds it more profitable than owning a bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who would want to be Potter, the lonely Scrooge and Bedford Falls\u2019 tyrant, when you could marry Donna Reed and live a wonderful life? \u00a0No man is a failure who has friends\u2014or so the angel tells George. George\u2019s brother toasts him as, \u201cThe richest man in town. . . \u201d Frank Capra is not subtle, but he is right.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is right in a way I once struggled to understand: literally and not just metaphorically.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was a boy, I rooted for the Baileys and their Building and Loan<\/a>, because George\u2019s dad is like my dad. You can, as the movie says, \u201cAsk Dad, he knows.\u201d \u00a0I assumed, however, that financially speaking, friendship was a bad deal. You were happy, but you were not (actually) rich.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was dead wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

The longer I live the more I see that\u00a0friends\u00a0do for us what nobody could pay them to do. <\/span><\/h4>\n

When Aunt Karen and Mom transformed a gym floor into a set of sitting rooms using their own furniture and that of friends, they saved us thousands of\u00a0real dollars\u00a0and made something beautiful and authentic to us for our wedding reception. Money would not have bought us something better. <\/span><\/p>\n

When my daughter got married, the families rallied and friends came to us and created beauty that money could not buy. Have a crisis? Call Kris and Lily. Need world-class wedding day planning? Find Megan and Cate. Actually, you cannot call them, because they did for their friends Jacob and Jane what they would never do for money.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was remarkable, wonderful, and\u00a0valuable<\/i>. Why?<\/span><\/p>\n

Work done because of friendship rather than money is done with a care and authenticity that money cannot match.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Who has not seen the difference between a room lovingly decorated (with insights from trained friends!) and decor that comes from the mere expenditure of coin?<\/span><\/p>\n

My grandmother gave my grandfather care that money could not buy as long as she could. Then, my parents gave her care while they could. Again: there is nothing wrong with money, but it cannot replace friendship. Even when care had to shift to professionals, and sometimes it does, then friendship and love can provide the priceless addition that makes professional care palatable.<\/span><\/p>\n

I now work in a college program and school with a budget one-thirtieth of that I last handled. The people with whom I work left similar positions and yet are doing\u00a0more<\/i>\u00a0with\u00a0less<\/i>. At the same time, we have found a community of awesome people, people of means who\u00a0are friends<\/i>, who stand with us. They prove that a man need not be either Potter or George: you can have both sorts of wealth and do remarkable things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes I look at the chums that stretch all over the world, at my adult children (now friends!), and at our Saint Constantine Family (Bedford Falls as a k-college) and I think: I am the richest man in H-town.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rachel Motte edited this essay.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frank Capra taught me how to be the richest man in town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1007,"featured_media":12430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[175,177,176,178,179],"class_list":["post-12429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spiritual-reflections","tag-frank-capra","tag-friendship","tag-its-a-wonderful-life","tag-money","tag-you-cant-take-it-with-you"],"yoast_head":"\nFrank Capra: How to be the richest man in town<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"People will do great good for love that they would never do for money. That is one thing Frank Capra taught me.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Frank Capra: How to be the richest man in town\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"People will do great good for love that they would never do for money. That is one thing Frank Capra taught me.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eidos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-28T20:42:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-02T13:34:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/169\/2017\/07\/Its_A_Wonderful_Life-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"316\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Mark N. Reynolds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jmnr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Mark N. Reynolds\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/\",\"name\":\"Frank Capra: How to be the richest man in town\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-28T20:42:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-02T13:34:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/3cb24660afc967bac2dc6fe5436bcffc\"},\"description\":\"People will do great good for love that they would never do for money. That is one thing Frank Capra taught me.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"For Love and Not Money: How to Be the Richest Man in Town\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/\",\"name\":\"Eidos\",\"description\":\"John Mark Reynolds on Faith and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/3cb24660afc967bac2dc6fe5436bcffc\",\"name\":\"John Mark N. Reynolds\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51b26c17175c14d173bc738772a7bb0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51b26c17175c14d173bc738772a7bb0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Mark N. Reynolds\"},\"description\":\"John Mark Reynolds is the president of The Saint Constantine Schools and College, a school that aspires to preschool through college education. He is also a philosopher, administrator, and joyous curmudgeon. Reynolds is a follower of Jesus and a student of Socrates. His PhD in philosophy is from the University of Rochester and he is author or editor of numerous books. He is an owner of the Green Bay Packers. Opinions here are his own ... even Hope doesn't agree with him always.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/Www.johnmarkreynolds.com\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jmnr\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/author\/jmreynolds\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Frank Capra: How to be the richest man in town","description":"People will do great good for love that they would never do for money. That is one thing Frank Capra taught me.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Frank Capra: How to be the richest man in town","og_description":"People will do great good for love that they would never do for money. That is one thing Frank Capra taught me.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/","og_site_name":"Eidos","article_published_time":"2017-07-28T20:42:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-08-02T13:34:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":316,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/169\/2017\/07\/Its_A_Wonderful_Life-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Mark N. Reynolds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jmnr","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Mark N. Reynolds","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/","name":"Frank Capra: How to be the richest man in town","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-07-28T20:42:35+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-02T13:34:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/3cb24660afc967bac2dc6fe5436bcffc"},"description":"People will do great good for love that they would never do for money. That is one thing Frank Capra taught me.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2017\/07\/love-not-money-richest-man-town\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"For Love and Not Money: How to Be the Richest Man in Town"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/","name":"Eidos","description":"John Mark Reynolds on Faith and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/3cb24660afc967bac2dc6fe5436bcffc","name":"John Mark N. Reynolds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51b26c17175c14d173bc738772a7bb0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51b26c17175c14d173bc738772a7bb0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Mark N. Reynolds"},"description":"John Mark Reynolds is the president of The Saint Constantine Schools and College, a school that aspires to preschool through college education. He is also a philosopher, administrator, and joyous curmudgeon. Reynolds is a follower of Jesus and a student of Socrates. His PhD in philosophy is from the University of Rochester and he is author or editor of numerous books. He is an owner of the Green Bay Packers. Opinions here are his own ... even Hope doesn't agree with him always.","sameAs":["http:\/\/Www.johnmarkreynolds.com","https:\/\/twitter.com\/jmnr"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/author\/jmreynolds\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}