From Jim McGuiggan... I stole some money

I stole some money

When I was very young we were really poor (mother bore thirteen of us). Not Angela’s Ashes poor but getting down there. We were another family in a vast throng of poor families. I thought it’d get better when I got older and it did but it took a while and when Ethel and I married (we were eighteen) it was still a real slog. [It’s been a very long time since I’ve been hungry or poor.]

I recently watched again the movie The Cinderella Man. It moved and inspired me and cut me to the core; tore off the scab that covered an old wound almost fifty years old. The movie’s a slice out of the life of a fine man, James J. Braddock. He and his family, like millions of others, were going through the Depression; jobless, hungry, sometimes literally and always virtually penniless. His little boy, driven by fear and hunger stole meat from a butcher. Braddock took the boy with him as he gave the meat back to the man before assuring the child of his love for him and solemnly telling him that no matter how poor and pressured they were, “We don’t steal!” That is moral heroism!

I once was given charge over some congregational money. When we got enough we were going to buy film strips and a recorder to teach the gospel to people. Life was hard at the time and I “borrowed” some of the money, fully intending to return it when I got it and before the full amount was reached. But the day of reckoning came suddenly and unexpectedly and my embezzling was uncovered. The shame of it! I’m not sure where I thought I might get the money to replace it and I suppose at that point I didn’t care to think much about it. In any case I stole some of it. I’ve committed many other crimes more heinous than that—none that I’ve completely forgotten. But Braddock’s grand character and his sweet but strong words to his child, “We don’t steal!” reminded me of those who continue to stand, even under great pressure, in places where I have fallen.

The poet, Wordsworth, taught us that what a great person does for us is this: he does something that was never done before but which, once it is done, becomes a standard for the rest of us, below which we can no longer be content.

[I finally repaid the money.]

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com