Every letter that my father wrote … all … all had about them an empurpled intensity … a flair …an escalation of objects and events out of the mundane and into the celestial.

Dear Shelly:
It’s great that you made the Mail Bag in Barrons, and that you received a complimentary payment. Possibly you can contribute some new points of view to the financial magazine -- After all -- Many eyes go thru’ the meadow -- But few see the flowers. They probably are in need of a new perspective from an economic point --
You are correct in writing your articles to the papers since -- To shut oneself up from mankind is, in most cases, to lead a dull, as well as a selfish life. Our duty is to make ourselves useful, and thus life may be most interesting, and yet comparatively free from anxiety.

There is an old English Song as follows -
Oh for a book and a shadie nooke,
Either indoors or out;
With the green leaves whispering overhead.
Or the street cryes all about.
Where I may read all at my ease,
Both of the new and old;
For a jolly good booke whereon to look,
Is Better to me than gold.

I suggest that you keep brushed up on the economic state of affairs by reading occasionally The New York Times.

Happy is he that findeth wisdom,
And the man that getteth understanding;
For the merchandise of it is better than silver,
And the gain thereof than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies;
And all the things thou canst desire are not
To be compared to her.
Length of days is in her right hand,
And in her left hand riches and honour.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace.
(Proverbs of Solomon)

Sir Francis Bacon once said: No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth. So possibly you are justified in your analysis of how economics is taught in your school. There are two methods of conveying thoughts, by education and by instruction. It is far more important to cultivate the mind than to store up the memory. Instruction is only a part of education, for the philosopher Epicetus once said, You will do the greatest service to the state if you shall raise, not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens, for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses, rather than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.
The philosopher Locke once said Schools fit us for the university rather than for the world. Sir John Herschel once remarked, it can hardly be pressed forcibly enough on the attention of the student of nature, that there is scarcely any natural phenomena which can be fully and completely explained, in all of its circumstances, without a union of several, perhaps all of the sciences. A boy who leaves school knowing much but hating his lesson, will soon have forgotten almost all he ever learnt, while another who had acquired a thirst for knowledge, even if he had learnt little, would soon teach himself more than the first ever knew. The underlying error is that Students are given the impression that the masters know everything when in reality “the great ocean of knowledge and truth lies all undiscovered before us.”
Tennyson once said, “The many fail; the one succeeds.” But this is scarcely true -- All succeed who deserve though possibly not as they hoped, for the finger of fate moves in a mysterious fashion.
*“Evan mohasu ha pauneem, hauesau la rosh pinneau.” (Translation: The Stone that was rejected became the chief cornerstone.)
Love,
Dad

Shelly Reuben is an Edgar-nominated author, private detective, and fire investigator. For more about her books, visit shellyreuben.com
Copyright © 2008, Shelly Reuben