I work on wall street where many people make more money in a month thanothers have in a lifetime. Some of these people pay a monthly rent that'sclose to my yearly salary.

Most of the above mentioned people, however, come in to work before dawn,some even as early at 4:30am. They stay here until 8,9, sometimes even 10 orway past midnight. (at the lower ranks of the firm there are many analyststhat simply go home to take a shower and come back, but these poor soulsearn very little for the enormous time commitment that they call a job.)These really high level managers never really get to see their children growup. How could they? They're never home.

Some of these men (as they almost always are) are more than happy to admitthat they like the money. They want the money. They want the prestige. Ihave no issues with such people.

My beef is with the other set. The ones who claim they're doing it for theirfamily. The ones who spend up to sixteen hours of their day away from thevery family for which they're trying to provide opportunities.

I don't know who they think they're fooling but it's not me and I bet nottheir family either.

I don't mean to imply that money isn't important or that it doesn't allowfor amazing opportunities. But I think our society strongly undermines theimportance of shared time.

I grew up in a pretty decent household, money-wise. My parents were kindenough to get my sister and me almost anything we asked for. We neverreally wore brand names or had cars, but we didn't ever feel deprivedeither. While I spent countless hours playing with the toys my parentsbought me, some of my fondest childhood memories are from times we spenttogether as a family.

My father would spend days planning our birthdays. He was famous in theneighborhood for throwing the best birthday parties ever. My sister'sfriends to the day tell him how awesome the parties were. My mother wouldbribe me to ditch school so we could spend the day together and go shopping(all right, that might not be a good example setting, but it was qualitytime with my mom). One of my favorite vacations ever was when I was thirteenand we went to Disney World as a family. Another one a few years ago when Imet my sister and my mom in Rome and my dad joined us after three days. Orwhen I was in London for work and my mom came to hang out with me.

None of the presents I ever got is more valuable than the memories I havewith my family. Money might be able to buy presents and toys and vacationsand exotic trips but if your children don't get to spend them with you,you've deprived them of the thing they need most.

This doesn't go just for parenting. When was the last time you called a goodfriend and asked to hang out? We take the people around us for granted waytoo often. We think they'll always be there. What if your friend who lives afew streets down, and whom you never see but you always could cause he'sright there, decides he's moving across the country?

Why wait for an occasion? Call now. It doesn't matter what you do, only thatyou do it together.

Previously? Oxymoron.