Wisdom Wednesday: Love or Money?

I'm a pretty inexperienced and innocent person, as the "book smart" label of this blog makes clear, but I've been lucky over the years to benefit from amazing advice given by people who know a whole lot more than I do. I was thinking today about how I don't really have any ideas of my own; they're pretty much all stolen from people who are much smarter than me.

In honor of all the advice I've received - some great and some not-so-great - I'm starting a new little tradition on my blog: Wisdom Wednesdays. Every week I'll share a piece of thought-provoking advice for you to think about, talk about and enjoy.

I had this high school history teacher who was an absolute riot. She raised 5 sons and 2 daughters before pursuing a second career teaching British history. She was one heck of a teacher. We students sat spellbound in class, enraptured by her stories. Because that was how she portrayed it: to her, history was one long, interesting, gossipy story about fascinating people who did the most incredible things. She made every lesson interesting. We just loved her.

As great as her teaching was, it was her extracurricular words of wisdom that really stuck with me. She would occasionally go off on side topics that sent us into fits of laughter. "Why can't human beings just lay eggs," she would joke, "instead of giving birth? It would be much easier."

One day she got started on the topic of marrying for love vs. marrying for money. What a ridiculous dichotomy, she said. Why should any girl have to choose between the two?

"Never forget, girls," she said, "You can love a rich man just as well as a poor man."

What a zinger! I still think of it when I see a girl facing that conflict in movies or books. This quote hasn't really been relevant to my life, but I think it's funny and awesome. I would love to hear what you think!