Yesterday while listening to NPR, I heard a commentary by . Mr. Cohen is the author of the new book, Sweet and Low: a Family Story.
The commentary briefly described how a misunderstanding left his mother and himself with no portion of a rather large fortune. Cohen compared this grandmother's action of disinheritance to having a necessary flight permanently cancelled.
I have to admit I didn't understand why getting all that money was so necessary. Did Cohen build up insurmountable debt? If so, he has no one to blame but himself. Mr. Cohen, I have some advice for you; don't depend on money that isn't physically in your bank account!
While listening to the commentary, Cohen tries to convince the listener that the money doesn't really matter, only the message that it sent to him and his family. He and his family (he speaks for them) now feel ostracized; DNA is the only thing that connects him to a now estranged family.
Cohen communicates little accept his bitterness and feeling of betrayal. Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? Oh, you poor little spoiled rich boy, you didn't cash in. Boo hoo. I'm sorry you didn't get your millions upon millions just for being born into a particular family.
I mean seriously, does he expect the general public to sympathize with him? He certainly knows his former peers won’t help; they live high through screwing the average person.
What is the point of this book? Is it to salvage some kind of fortune out of his experience? An act of desperation to cash in somehow? He hopes his children will never find out what happened, yet he's going to write a book about it? He must assume that "normal" people are stupid!
Mr. Cohen nobody cares about your misfortunes! As you will come to find out, "normal" people deal with disappointment and discouragement daily, we just don’t bitch about it on national radio.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Disinheritance
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2 comments:
I do agree that he was rather whiney, and creating a book about the situation is not the best way to keep it from your children, but as someone who has faced teh threat of disinheritance all her life, I understand what he is saying. You are both right, in regards to the money...the money is at the root of the issue, but not for the money itself. it is about being told that if you do not conform, you will get nothing, and that all the others wil get your "share." It is about a sad woman who thinks that this threat is the only way she can hold her family together, and to keep her place with them.
I can say that I don't care about the money, but in truth, i do...my grandfather left that so that his family could have an easier time of things...but I also wish that maybe there was no money, so that my grandmother could just love, and be loved, without haveing to wage a war with her fortune as a weapon. it is a complicated issue, that is never truly one or the other...Man, I just confused myself! LOL!
I can understand where you're coming from, sojourner. I hope I didn't imply that being disinherited is a positive thing.
I just didn't feel sorry for him since I've never had a lot of money, and certainly am not going to benefit from anybody's death.
My philosophy is: go about your life as if no one is going to help you, and if you happen to cash in count yourself lucky.
I just don't want to hear any body bitch about how they didn't get money that wasn't theirs in the first place.
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