This is a wonderful and refreshing piece, I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of a convo I had recently with my mother, who was astonished by a family member’s tremendous financial success. I asked her, don’t you think it’s just as amazing that, say, my daughter is going to grad school to be a social worker for community activism, that she’ll never make a lot of money and that’s not what motivates her? Shouldn’t you be just as astonished by that? Our culture gets it all wrong, always looking for the tangibles - the money, the trophies, the fancy diplomas. Those are lovely for sure! But they can’t be everything if we want to be filled up inside too. Really great essay!