Recapture the wonder

In 1996, Oscar-winning actor Haing Ngor was tragically murdered in Los Angeles. Ngor was not a household name but he became known and respected by those who saw the movie The Killing Fields. Dr. Ngor was actually a physician turned actor who feld his native country of Cambodia after he had lost every member of his family to the murderous Khmer Rouge. This man had lived on wild roots in the jungle, hiding from his tormentors. He had been tortured and imprisoned by the Communists. When he escaped Cambodia, he left with one precious possession: a gold locket that had belonged to his wife, from whose loss he was never able to recover. He wore that locket around his neck, with a lock of her hair placed inside it.

Arriving in the United States, he worked as a counsellor in his own commuity and did an enormous amount of humanitarian work. He became an accomplished actor and was well loved by all who knew him. One night, a band of young thugs cornered him and demanded everything he had. He parted with everything but the locked and explained why. It was all he had left of his wife's personal memory and he pleaded with themm to not take it from him. They would have nothing of such reasoning and because they had no imagination for such treasures of the heart. Instead, they mercilessly killed him in order to wrench the locket away from him. As the age of forty-six, Ngor died clinging to the locket bespeaking a value that those murderers did not understand.

To ascribe value to monetary things is to reduce one's own value to the same level. To lift the value of something beyond the monetary is to make it immeasurable. The one possessing the wealth must know its real value if the possession is to bring wonder.