Today, I Am Rich

Today, I am rich.

Today, I went without hunger.

I did not go without lesson.

I sat in the autumnal breeze,

and I had clothes that held my shiver.

I imbibed a beverage

served to me,

made by someone else's craft,

with tea leaves blended by a person,

who devoted years of study

to blending tea leaves,

bought by yet another person,

whose job it is to know,

what the blender wants,

and who across the globe has grown it,

grown by the agriculture of even more people,

people who must have lived there for generations,

whose ancestors impregnate the soil

with their mortal fertility,

who hunted and farmed and fed families on this land

—shat, pissed, killed, bled, and gave birth on the dusty hospitality of this land.

Today, I am rich,

because I am drinking the drama of the world played out in this cup…

The pains and triumphs of all our history.

I need not fight with my neighbors,

because I am rich and I have enough.

I need not conspire against them,

because I am rich and I have enough.

I need not steal,

nor covet,

nor be unfair,

nor be dishonest,

nor cheat,

because right now, I am alive,

and therefore, I have enough.

And when I can no longer have enough,

then I have had enough, because

what I "have", was never really "had"

—just borrowed,

but that's okay. That's good with me,

because that's still enough.

So, while today is still today

and I am still rich,

I share with you all of my riches:

the knowledge that right now,

you too have this moment,

and that is enough.