Tina Sinatra tells how her dad, Frank Sinatra, as he grew older started to have problems with his memory. At one show he forgot the lyrics to his hit song ‘Second Time Around,’ and his adoring fans had to finish it for him. She said that she couldn’t bear to see him struggle, and remembered all the times he’d repeated the old boxing maxim: ‘You gotta get out before you hit the mat.’ After seeing one too many of these fiascos, she said to him: ‘Pop, you can stop now.’ But with a stricken expression he replied: ‘No, I’ve got to earn more money. I have to make sure everyone is taken care of.’ However, since his death there have been constant family wrangles over his fortune.
It reminds me of that wisdom from the Bible that warns that ‘all our busy rushing to heap up wealth ultimately ends in nothing.’