PRUDENCE

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The word prudence is used throughout the book of Proverbs; it is a large part of wisdom. Even the more modern Message translation of the Bible uses the word prudence, because there is not another word like it in our common vernacular. Like the word “virtue,” the word “prudence,” as well as the thing itself, has become lost to our culture. It has come to be on the “endangered list,” if it is indeed not already extinct.)

July 16, 2021

My dad was in the Navy when he met a man named Eddie. Eddie was from Minnesota. They were good buddies in the Navy, but then their service time ended and they went their separate ways, Eddie to his native Minnesota, and my dad back to Washington state. 

And then when I was maybe 16-18 years old or so, Eddie and his wife Gloria came to our house in Grapeview during a vacation, to visit my mom and dad. I didn’t hang out with them much for the several days they were there, but I could tell that mom and dad really enjoyed their company.

When Eddie and Gloria had left to go back home, mom talked to me about them, and how impressed she was with them. “Eddie and Gloria are quite religious” she told me. “And they give 10% of everything they earn to the Catholic Church, they save at least 10%, they pay maybe 15% total in taxes and they live off the other 65%. They’ve been doing that their whole lives.” 

I had never heard of such a thing. But it impressed me, it stuck with me. And I later learned that this way of life was one that might be called “Prudent.”

   —Art Nicklaus