Hey, it's Major. Over the past few years, I've had the great privilege of sharing poetry with you

and offering a daily moment to pause and slow down. Today, we're revisiting one of my favorite episodes

from my time on the show. I hope you enjoy this selection.

I'm Major Jackson, and this is The Slowdown. Once I was called into a meeting with a donor at my non-profit job.

In a moment that I witnessed as an education in nobles, oblige, the donor had brought along his college-aged son, who was slightly younger than me.

He was teaching him how to be a philanthropist, a moment that stuck with me for a long time.

I often shared this story with my son.

On the eve of his last birthday, I called and jokingly said,

So, should we talk about money?

We both laughed hysterically.

Where I'm from, a child of working class people, money wasn't discussed in the home.

It was argued about.

And we definitely did not have conversations about giving money away.

I hated the Paul money cashed over my parents.

And the desperation it created in my community.

How it set the agenda for how neighbors lived their lives, and how their children treated others

either less fortunate or more affluent. Even more sadly, how it became a wedge between people

and how it divorced them from their better selves.

When my son first moved to Brooklyn, his recently landed job did not start for two months.

Until then, he worked in a wine store.

He loved it.

During this period, I'd offered to buy dinner whenever I traveled to New York City.

...