On my first time down as a certified scuba diver, I marveled over an extraordinarily large manta ray with its twenty-five-foot-wide wings until it aimed for me head on, its broad mouth open.

I’m two, maybe three, wearing a baggy diaper and standing in shin-deep puddle water. Leah’s here too, all pigtails and chubby legs and chubby cheeks.

The pastor raises his hands and loosely smiles at the Sunday regular crowd. Satisfied, he begins his prayer. "Dear Lord, let our children find prosperity . . . "

Remember when our dreams were simply slips of paper, scrawled in minutes, torn with careless confidence, and tacked to beams that crossed through darkness overhead in the attic above your room?

I remember him, but not his name; stoic, a keen intellect, just shy of government-sanctioned retirement age. A mountain of hospital bills added to the depression he was being treated for.

Born of fierce independence and intent on passing this on to his children, my father required us to learn from his excellent financial acumen.