William Browder, an American businessman who made an immense fortune in the early days of modern Russia's rush into capitalism, recently wrote in a column in BusinessWeek that, "My relationship with the world used to be about how much money I made or lost.  Now, it's more about humanity."
     How did Browder come to this conclusion?  Along the way to achieving his financial success, he worked with a Russian named Sergei Magnitsky who helped Mr. Browder ferret out an massive fraud which a number of people perpetuated on his company.  Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, all unjustified, Mr. Magnitsky later earned the ire of the Russian authorities and was arrested, tortured, and eventually died in prison, broken and forgotten by most of the country.  Mr. Browder has devoted his time since Magnitsky's death to bringing justice to his situation.
     Immense wealth, as Mr. Browder possesses, enables us to do many things.  We can use it to enrich our lives materially or we can dedicate it to helping others.  Though this is a cliché that has been oft repeated, we do well to mention it again:  in the end, it won't matter how much money we had.  What matters is what we did with it.
     After all, everything is a gift:  did we have anything to do with our being here?