Budget the Luxuries First

Every now and then we get a teacher who changes our lives.  One such teacher for me was Dr. Charles Micarelli, now Dean and Professor Emeritus of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Central Florida.  I was a foreign language major, and Dr. Micarelli taught several of my classes in both French and Spanish literature.  He was a happy and a kind man, and one of the most brilliant men I've ever known.  Literature classes are all taught in the target language, so we were faced with the double challenge of first understanding the language and then also understanding the literary themes and historical background.  Dr. Micarelli was equally fluent in both languages, and taught me a lot of what I know about how to read literature.  He was the only teacher I ever had who received a standing ovation from the students when he entered the classroom on the last day of the year. 

As all good teachers do, Dr. Micarelli also gave us life lessons.  He was no longer young when I met him, and had lived a wonderfully full life, managing to become wealthy as a college professor by buying up empty land around the campuses where he worked.  Like I said, he was a smart guy.   He told us that even when he was young and struggling financially, he always made it a point to end his day with a snifter of top-shelf brandy and an excellent cigar.  He said that making it a point to enjoy his two favorite luxuries every day, no matter how tight money may have been, allowed him to feel the prosperity that he knew to be his.   It was also a leisurely ritual; during the time it took him to savor his drink and his smoke, he could enjoy the feeling that he had all the time and money in the world.  Dr. Micarelli taught me that life is meant to be enjoyed.  He also taught me that I deserved the best things that money can buy.

He reminded me of one of my favorite fictional characters, Lazarus Long.  In the Robert Heinlein future history series, Lazarus Long is a character who, through some genetic fluke, managed to live 300 years before he had to undergo rejuvenation treatments.  At one point he had been alive for so many centuries that he no longer saw any point in continuing, but the powers that be refused to allow him the dignity of taking his own life.  As the oldest living human ... he was born before World War I and this story takes place thousands of years into our future ... they decide that his memories are far too valuable to lose.  They lock him in a room and have pretty girls and a computer record every single one of his utterances so that they can later be culled for any sayings resembling wisdom.  Of all of the sayings of Lazarus Long, this is the one that I remember most:

BUDGET THE LUXURIES FIRST

Dr. Micarelli did that.  Young college professors do not make much money; but with every single one of his paychecks, he first bought the finest brandy and cigars he could find ... and then he worried about paying the bills.  Because I admired both men ... the fictional character and the teacher of fiction ... I took this advice to heart.  No, I don't drink brandy or smoke cigars, and I'm certainly not advocating an evening ritual that involves alcohol; but I did find my own personal version of brandy and cigars.  I chose one evening ritual that speaks luxury to me, and I have always paid for that first ... before tithing, paying bills, buying food.  And every evening when I sit down to enjoy my chosen ritual,  I still repeat Dr. Micarelli's words.  "Ah, brandy and a cigar!  Makes everything worth it." 

What is your brandy and cigar?  You already know what it is.  You've been thinking about it the whole time you've been reading this.  It is that one guilty pleasure that you simply will not allow yourself to enjoy because it costs too much, and there are far more important things to spend your money on.  The kids need stuff, your bills aren't all paid, you need to save up for that new water heater.  Go ahead ... indulge.  Don't worry that it's frivolous and extravagant.  Choose one ritual that speaks luxury to you, and make it a point to enjoy it every single day. 

We live in an abundantly generous universe.  Yet, sometimes we forget that fact.  We tend to focus on all the things that we don't have, and it stresses us out so bad that we forget to notice all of the abundance that surrounds us every day.  Having a luxurious daily ritual serves to affirm that abundance for us.  It turns out that Dr. Micarelli was more than just a brilliant linguist and professor of literature; he was also a master at the Law of Attraction.  Even when money was tight, his nightly brandy and cigar kept him focused on abundance, so abundance is what he ultimately attracted.  I owe him a great debt for teaching me that.  Here's to you, Dr. Micarelli!