Interfaith Roundtable tackles important topics

State Sen. Steve Rhoads hosted his first of three Interfaith Roundtable Breakfasts on Aug. 10, that brought together many leaders of different faiths from Wantagh, Seaford, East Meadow, and Levittown. The event is part of the senator’s ongoing mission to bring together people of different faiths and backgrounds to promote understanding and foster positive dialogue to better our community.

Rhoads gathered faith leaders at the Grand Stage Diner in East Meadow to discuss the importance of religious diversity and the intersections between religious practice and common everyday activities, such as parenting, mental health, and education.

The faith leaders shared their perspectives and experiences, while finding a lot of common ground. Attendees were also encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas about how the different faith groups can work together to create a more fulfilled, understanding, and inclusive society.

Topics discussed ranged from Rhoads’ anti-hate crime legislation to community safety, cashless bail, preserving the family unit, as well as the value of mentorship programs. Senator Rhoads also touched on the resources and partnership opportunities available to the faith groups through his office.

Overall, the event was a great success and enabled attendees to more deeply understand the value of religious diversity and to recognize the commonalities that we all share.

“I was happy to kick-off my Interfaith Roundtable series with a very successful breakfast in East Meadow,” Rhoads said. “As a Youth Minister for over a decade, I was truly inspired by the conversations and ideas that were shared, and the level of understanding and respect that was shown by all the faith groups involved.

“It was a great opportunity to come together and bridge the gaps between different faiths and unite as a community,” he added. “I look forward to hosting my next two Interfaith Roundtable events next week and I am whole-heartedly committed to continuing my mission of promoting understanding and uniting the community.”

Book Review: “ Die with Zero” by Bill Perkins

In “Die with Zero”, subtitled “Getting All That You Can from Your Money and Your Life”, retired engineer Bill Perkins takes an analytical view about making your life grow as opposed to making your money grow. Letting opportunities pass you by for fear of squandering money leads many to squander their lives instead.

Instead of just keeping on earning and earning to maximize wealth, too many of us don’t give nearly as much thought as to maximizing what they can get out of that wealth — including what they can give to others while they are living, instead of waiting until they die.

As opposed to spending money on things, which excitement depreciates over time, the author advocates spending on experiences, which grow in value over time, due to the “memory dividend”. Perkins advocates a systematic approach for eliminating the fear of running out of money (the main reason people oversave and underenjoy) while maximizing your and your loved ones enjoyment of that money.

Being that the main idea is that your life is the sum of your experiences, you should put some thought into planning the kind of experiences you want. If you die with significant wealth but a scarcity of experiences, you worked a lot of hours just to accumulate money that you either never used or were too old to use.

You can waste your life by underspending. Life is not only about “accumulating”, it is also about “decumulating” or using the money to maximize your life which, in the end, is nothing more than the memories you make.

In a similar vein, giving inheritances early maximizes the impact of those inheritance on the recipients’ quality of life. The average age of heirs being about sixty, the money usually arrives too late to do the most good.

Your time is limited. The chief regrets of the dying are that they didn’t live their dreams more and spent too much time working, missing out on relationships and life experiences.

Ettinger Law Firm