Worth-while...................

"Nobody ever asks me, 'Is this life you are living worth-while?'  That's a question that I ask myself, occasionally."

"Last summer a visitor....asked Ralph a purely hypothetical question, during one of those long rambling discussions that kindred souls get into:  'If you had a million dollars left to you to-morrow, what would be the first thing you'd do?'
     "Ralph thought for a long time, and I thought right along with him, wondering whether it would be an island in the South Seas - this was before Pearl Harbor - or a ranch in the Argentine.  Finally he said slowly, 'Well - that's a hard question to answer.   I can't make up my mind whether a bathroom or a  new roof for the woodshed comes first.'  He was serious, so we all laughed.......
     "I'd spend my million dollars on Forest Lodge, too, except for a fund I'd invest in letting the kids see the world.  I'd send them everywhere and let them taste everything, so that at last they'd come to know what we have here to value.  Discontent is only the fear of missing something.  Content is the knowledge that you aren't missing a thing worth-while."

-as excerpted from the final chapter to Louise Dickinson Rich's book,  We Took To The Woods