Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
In extending his arms around his daughter Melissa, Mr. Thomas Stepforth Sr. also had to embrace the kinds of care her children needed.
“We're losing everything – people are dying all around us with this COVID thing here in New York, our education is gone, and Mom has lost her mind too? Why is God doing this?” Melvin, her 21-year-old son, howled at his grandfather.
His four younger siblings were all in a similar level of anguish, requiring their grandfather to reach deep into wisdom. Generally, billionaires are considered the smartest men in a capitalist society, and Mr. Stepforth was a proud man … it would be so easy to fall into that and give a confident, pat, Scripture-based answer. It was so easy just to slap an answer on the anguish, feel smart, and then feel justified when the other person – even more hurt – refused to listen.
That was a trap for a man and his family, a trap the Stepforth family had lived in for many years, but the grandchildren had been spared because they were not adults in the bad years. They had lived through traumas of their own, but not with their grandparents beyond their very amicable divorce.
Mr. Stepforth thanked God, silently, that at last he saw the trap and had the sensibility necessary to lead his family out of it.
“I don't know, Melvin,” he said with a sigh. “God slides me some money every now and again, but He doesn't always slide me the plan. I only act like I know everything that is going on because I am very proud, and so I don't scare the family by looking scared.”
Melvin chuckled.
“Pop-Pop,” he said, “that's what I'm trying to do for my younger siblings.”
“Welcome to the Grown Man Club, grandson, where we can all talk to each other about living in a world in which we often find that we have far more responsibility than we have resources and control over what actually happens, and then share resources and help each other.”
“Does this actually exist?”
“No, but we can start it.”
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