In the household where I grew up—with only a mom in charge—none of us kids were allowed to borrow anything from anyone. Whether it was nail polish, hair products, clothes, school supplies, or cold hard cash, the slogan in our house was “You have what you need. And if you don’t have it, make do, or do without.”
The notion of doing without until I could buy or earn what I wanted was something I hated as a kid.
As an adult, however, this mantra of self-sufficiency was a lesson in reality. Because in the real world the things we want don’t magically come to us.
You don’t hear the word husbandry much these days. It means using the resources that are available in a reasonable way. Shakespeare’s mention of husbandry helped me make sense of the concept of self-sufficiency.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
In other words, borrowing weakens or undermines your ability to manage what’s at hand.
No matter how wealthy or how broke you are, astute management of your available resources is a big part of life.
And since we don’t often hear the word husbandry used in a sentence, allow me . . .
