The Keys to What You're Worth

 So, what are you worth? And what are the measures of that worth? Money? Property? The love of a very worthy one? Fame?

Nah.

I discovered another, more worthy measure just the other day.

Joyce needed to take our car keys to the Toyota dealer in Kent to have the batteries replaced. And as I removed the key from my key ring, well, I looked at what remained on my ring--I laughed. (See pic.)

I made some waggish comment, something like this: "Well," I said to her, "this is what remains!"

There were times, early in my life, that I had carried so many keys that all that metal set off detectors all over the Cleveland area. I sagged to the left when I walked (guess which pocket contains my keys?). Keys to houses (mine and others in the family), to classrooms and schools, keys I’d acquired but no longer had any idea what they opened. In the display in the pic, for instance, the key on the top is for ...? The other is our house key.

We have two cars, but since I no longer drive, I leave that key in a little thingy on the dining room table. And in place of keys, I have on the ring three swipe cards for places we shop: two grocery stores and CVS.  I no longer tilt to the left.

It’s kind of humbling, actually, to see what little remains. I feel a bit like Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, a once-wealthy man who’s so generous with his money—helping friends, holding extravagant parties. Eventually, he’s broke, and, of course, no one comes to see him anymore. He heads off into the woods, living like a hermit, a troglodyte.

But then one day .... he discovers a hoard of gold ...and ... read it, stream it.

So ... that lone key, for me, is now a symbol of my Timon-of-Athensness. (Of course, excessive wealth has never been my problem.)

I exaggerate. I still have so much: a loving wife; a son, daughter-in-law; two spectacular grandsons; two talented brothers; some fine friends, some of whom I’ve never even met (friendships created via Facebook).

And I’ve learned that the answer to Where is the key of happiness? is in the previous paragraph.

There, and in your own heart.