It is late spring and the school year is drawing to a close. Must mean it's prom time. Two weeks ago I was at a resort here in town helping my daughter and son-in-law decorate for the school prom where he teaches.

As the decorating wound down and guests for various functions were arriving, it felt a bit like Cinderella's ball. Evening gowns and tuxedos were abundant, and I felt slightly out of place as I went to leave in my sandals, jeans and a polo shirt. I went to the bathroom before I left and upon the gleaming granite countertops were wicker baskets filled with rolled washcloths for drying your hands. No cheap paper towels here; wouldn't go with the ambience.

As I walked out the front doors of the resort, a few guests pulled up in a limo, and a plethora of expensive cars were being parked by valets. A beautiful fountain splashed under an archway that framed the city lights below us. As I walked down the hill to where I had parked my truck, I passed a steakhouse on the property that had an aroma which drew me in. I glanced through tinted windows at restaurant patrons who were opening what I am sure was an expensive bottle of wine as they were sampling hors d'ouvres. Near my truck I saw some of the students who had arrived and were dressed up for their prom. This is a school with some pretty hardened students who haven't always made the wisest choices in life, and their choices of attire reflected that. Somehow, an evening gown in combination with multiple facial piercings just didn't do it for me. Their excitement, however, was palpable as I walked past them. After all, this resort was not the type of place many of them would ever frequent again.

As I drove away, I had a sense of sadness inside. My adoptions have taken me places in the world that I otherwise never would have visited, and shown me sights that I never would have seen, and it is those places that are real to me, not a fancy resort where everyone goes home after an ephemeral evening out while the staff are left to clean up the mess.

Part of me has become jaded about opulence. It seems so unnecessary when most others in the world don't know where their next meal is coming from. I sigh when people tell me they spent $300.00 dollars on a purse. Are we really so into labels that we are willing to spend that much money on something that a person in a third world country made and probably earned about $1.00 for their labor?

Since my adoptions and the sights I have seen as a result, I think my mantra has come much closer to "Live simply so that others may simply live."

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