Relative Cost

So our middle daughter announced tonight that she’s going to Harvard, in the bold, confident and certain way that only a ten-year old can affect.  Her assertion reminded me of my golfing buddy Kuan Li, who I played with at Algonkian on the banks of the Potomac back in Virginia

Kuan is pushing 70.  He is retired.  He immigrated into the United States as a teenager from Taiwan.  He’s different from most people you meet in the Washington DC area in that he was uncredentialed and had had a real job -- in large scale HVAC design and installation, primarily work in commercial office buildings.  Kuan walks around the links -- fast.  He typically is the first off the first tee in the mornings.  When playing a lonesome he flies around in two and one-half hours or less, but he loves to play with other early birds and will slow to their pace.  He is an artist with the needle.

When I mentioned my eldest made a similar pronouncement, Kuan said to me, “Oh Grady, you no want your daughter to go to Harvard.”  “It’s very, very expensive”, he continued, “My son go to Harvard, it will make you broke.”  Wait a minute I said to Kuan, “I thought you said your son is a doctor.”  “Oh yes” Kuan said.  And where did he go to medical school I asked.  “Johns Hopkins” replied Kuan, “Even more expensive.”  I asked what is your son’s practice area?  “He neurosurgeon.” Kuan said.  And I inquired, isn’t that the son who takes you out to his country club when you go down to visit in Nashville.  “Oh yes,” Kuan insisted, “But Harvard is very, very expensive, you don’t want to go broke.”  Kuan, of course, wouldn't have wanted it any other way.