Back To School....

So, I went to back to school night last night and it was great. Kate's teacher is amazing. But it was the mini-presentation that she gave, that was to be purely informative, that got me thinking. This is a young woman that grew up in the UK then moved to Australia after getting married and has the most fabulous accent and demeanor...everything you would picture from the national/life description as the perfect Mary Poppins for your first grader. Her presentation was beyond fabulous and I don't mean fancy, just very informative of who she is as a teacher and how she runs her classroom. It was once she got past herself and started to describe her amazing co-teacher that I realized this international (albeit at the "top American school in Dubai") education was not just beneficial for my daughter, but for me as well.

So, in describing some aspect of her co-teacher, the lead teacher used the term 'rich' as one of her first adjectives in telling us about her assistant. It took me taking in the rest of her sentence to realize in no way did she mean anything relating to money. She was describing where all this woman had lived, what she had expericenced and the people she tought, describing her as "rich". In passing, this may not seem so odd. But upon her third use of this term in this sense, I did find myself reassesing what she said to use the term in her proper meaning. I realized that in describing someone or something as 'rich' my first inclination was to tie it to wealth. While this is the primary definition of the word, there are apparently 18 more definitions of this word, and while the first fulfills what I originally thought, it was interesting to see that of the 18 other uses of it, more than the majority of the list from the online dictionary have little to do with monetary wealth :

adjective, richer, richest.

1.

having wealth or great possessions; abundantly supplied withresources, means, or funds; wealthy:

a rich man; a rich nation.

2.

abounding in natural resources:

a rich territory.

3.

having wealth or valuable resources (usually followed by in):

a country rich in traditions.

4.

abounding (usually followed by in or with):

a countryside rich in beauty; a design rich with colors.

5.

of great value or worth; valuable:

a rich harvest.

6.

(of food) delectably and perhaps unhealthfully spicy, or sweet andabounding in butter or cream:

a rich gravy; a rich pastry.

7.

costly, expensively elegant, or fine, as dress or jewels.

8.

sumptuous; elaborately abundant:

a rich feast.

9.

using valuable materials or characterized by elaborate workmanship,as buildings or furniture.

10.

abounding in desirable elements or qualities:

a man rich in kindness.

11.

(of wine) strong and finely flavored.

12.

(of color) deep, strong, or vivid:

rich purple.

13.

full and mellow in tone:

rich sounds; a rich voice.

14.

strongly fragrant; pungent:

a rich odor.

15.

producing or yielding abundantly:

a rich soil.

16.

abundant, plentiful, or ample:

a rich supply.

17.

Automotive. (of a mixture in a fuel system) having a relatively highratio of fuel to air (contrasted with lean2(def 5.)).

18.

Informal.

1. highly amusing.
2. ridiculous; absurd.

noun

19.

(used with a plural verb) rich persons collectively (usually preceded bythe):

new tax shelters for the rich.

Why am I letting my kids, or myself, think that 'rich' means something monetary. We try to provide them with a plethora of experiences, the most recent example being picking up and moving to Dubai for 2 years on short notice and telling them they will have Arabic everyday instead of Spanish twice a week, staying in a hotel room where they could pet and feed giraffes, skiing inside the mall, and a multitude of other things that are much more culturally obvious. We didn't realize that we were making them, and ourselves, 'rich' as people.

Once changing my viewpoint, our standard US salary seems like a gift. My fear of not having enough for my children to provide some of the 'finer' things seems trivial compared to the 'richness' we are giving them through life experiences.

Dubai is a city filled with monetary richness, no doubt. We are surrounded by it, whether it is a palace in the neighborhood, seeing the Sheik's boat off the beach or the 3 Lamborghini's at the red light with you waiting to get to the petrol station/McDonald/s (and yes, the rumour about McD's being better overseas than in the US is totally true. I have 10 lbs to prove it!). 

However, I feel that living here and experiencing everything we can, from the indoor skiing to the Old Souk on the Dubai Creek, the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi and so many other things that the 7 Emirates and this entire region has to offer is contribuiting the the 'richness' of each of us. I like to think that upon our departure next year, we will be far 'richer' than when we arrived, despite what any credit card statement says, lol.