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Take Care Not to Give Too Much for Whistles
Until I was 12 years old or so, my prized possession was a small, stuffed lion that I had for as long as I could remember. When I made my bed in the morning (I really did make my bed most mornings), that little lion would sit proudly on my pillow until night came when I would tuck it into bed with me.
When my older brother and I decided to convert our bunk bed into a trundle-style bed, there wasn’t room for my little lion on the pillow when I pushed my bed under my brother’s for the day. So, I would place him atop the mound of stuffed animals in my “pet net” that hung from the corner of my room. He would watch over the room majestically until I’d pull him down again each night.
That lion was my favorite non-human companion for years, and thinking back on my little lion reminds me of something Benjamin Franklin once wrote. In November of 1779, Franklin shared a story in a letter to a Madame Brillon, which came to be known as The Whistle. In it, Franklin recalled how, when he was seven, he eagerly spent all the money in his pockets to buy a whistle that had caught his ear.
He reported going home, whistling all over the house, but recounted:
My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.
In his letter to Madame Brillon, Franklin shared that the lesson he learned was “when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, Don’t give too much for the whistle; and I saved my money.”
Most kids don’t think about things in terms of monetary value. Whoever purchased that lion for me probably spent under $5 for it in 1979. $5 today won’t even buy a lousy meal at [insert the fast food restaurant of your choice].
That little lion was a major fixture in my life for more than 12 years. I took the relatively little amount of money someone spent and stretched the value of what it purchased out over more than a decade. While they likely didn’t know it, I would consider that $5 some of the best…
