Annually, UBS hosts the Young Successors Program, a three-day workshop for scions of wealthy families. In the workshop, these rich “kids” hole up in a luxury hotel, attend various mixers, and eat and drink well as kindly UBS bankers guide them through the challenges of inherited money. Beyond investing and entrepreneurship, the workshop also focuses on noblesse oblige.
Noblesse oblige translates to “nobility obligates”. It connotes that wealth and power are concomitant with social responsibility. The privileged must honor the less privileged and show them kindness and generosity. Noblesse oblige corresponds with Luke 12:48, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
For those of us who weren’t invited to UBS’ Young Successors Program, we might be tempted to leave philanthropy to those rich kids and their ilk. However, if we do so, we are discounting the blessings in our own unique lives and short-changing others and ourselves. Individually, we are not able to give as much money or time to others as YSPers, but we can give some time, talent or treasure to someone, somewhere! And if we come together, we can do even more.
On a walk through the neighborhood park this morning, I passed a newly remodeled playground and saw children climbing, swinging, and sliding. The music of their giggling voices filled my ears and lifted my spirit. On the other side of the park, I stopped at the thoughtfully xeriscaped landscape in front of our local library. I sat on a one-of-a kind mosaic covered bench to remove my shoe and empty it of a pesky pebble. A man locked his bicycle to the handmade bike rack constructed of repurposed bike parts and returned a book in the library drop box. Some of the organization and the funding for the remodel of the playground and most of the organization and funding for beautifying the library grounds came from private citizens in our community, working together. In the case of the library landscape project, people volunteered for much of the labor, too. As one of the laborers, I liked joining with neighbors to do something good, and I continue to appreciate the enhancement both projects give to others. Up next, we are coming together to repaint the fence around the park’s community pool. It is not lost on me that the park is named Himmel Park; Himmel in German means heaven.
Some say we are all children of God, the King of Kings. Sounds pretty good to me, especially the noblesse oblige that comes along with royal status.
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present
Relevant Links:
UBS Young Successors Program
Luke 12:48
Himmel Park, Tucson, Arizona
Himmel Park Library, Tucson, Arizona
Himmel Pool, Tucson, Arizona
Himmel Park Library Beautification Project, Tucson, Arizona
Friends of Himmel Park