O World, What Else Have You Got?

Redefining Rich: Achieving True Wealth with Small Business, Side Hustles, and Smart Living Shannon Hayes Ben Bella, 2021; 224 pages, $14.95   If you’d kindly turn to the index of first lines in the poetry anthology nearest you, you’ll find the O section led by two odes to the world: “O world, I cannot hold thee close enough,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and “O world, thou choosest not the better part,” by George Santayana. The first lines are all we need to discern that the poets are dealing with two different worlds here. Millay praises cosmic magnificence, while Santayana reproaches secular empiricism. It’s a happy juxtaposition, drawing attention to the facts that the world is great, and the world also has a dumb habit of squandering its own greatness. But not everyone likes poetry, and it must be acknowledged that both poems are short on starter tips for getting one’s worlds in order. For such people, Redefining Rich by Shannon Hayes might help Santayana and Millay make their points, in addition to making headway on the problems they consider. Where Santayana argues that “It is not wisdom to be merely wise,” the Hayes version would be “It is not richness to be merely rich.” O world, are you listening? You’re never going to get knocked out of a tree by the glory of creation if you never have time to climb one. Hayes describes herself as liking the terms “free spirit” and “earth mama,” but those wary of woo-woo should keep reading. Redefining Rich exemplifies the horseshoe phenomenon, in which people at opposite ends of a spectrum of convictions have more ideas in common with each other than they do with the less dogmatic middle. Moreover, Hayes has reconciled the joys and conundrums of the mundane not with poetry, but with a whole lot of bookkeeping. Everyone wants to be rich. The question is what kind of riches one wants. Whereas the go-to definition of rich is having a lot of money, it’s clear that t
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