Envy of a Billionaire

 A dear friend says she thinks envy is the most toxic emotions. She can handle being hated by someone -- but envy frightens her -- she thinks the envious constantly wishes her bad -- she avoids anyone who envies her, like the plague, as my mother used to say.

I envy just about nobody. Well, Tom Brady for awhile, but even he suffered -- the supermodel wife taking multiple karate lessons a day with a studly sensei humbled him. So that's about it -- with the possible exception of Miami's best billionaire -- a fellow named Ken Griffin.

He was born in Florida, raised middle class in Boca, and then went to Harvard where he made connections and used his math genius to ultimately found the largest hedge fund in the US, Citadel. They were a major company in Chicago, and he would throw around millions in charity, like, as Barzini said about Don Corleone, so many nickels and dimes.

Well, Illinois taxes were tough, but despite paying them, Chicago's crime problem hit close -- his employees kept getting mugged, and the Chicago government seemed more worried about the creeps' rights than their victims -- so Griffin high tailed it to Miami. He's building a state of the art skyscraper off Brickell, bought crazy properties, led fellow billionaires in programs to recruit MORE billionaires to Miami (it's working -- the money coming here is crazy), and caused several major law firms to follow him here as well.

But most importantly, his charity here has been amazing. He gave the biggest gift ever to Nicklaus Childrens, and same to Baptist for a Neuroscience Center. He's donated to schools. And to my beloved UM -- $50M to build a new cancer research building -- it opened late last year.

Last night I learned he gave another $10M to UM -- to recruit a young, hotshot GI doc here from Emory. I read about this guy -- may have the WASPiest name ever: Dr. Field F Willingham. This was fodder for my friend chats -- I joked that he was coming here since the kreplach in Atlanta was from hunger. If it turns out this guy is Jewish, I have to retire my JewDar, which is usually pretty spot on.

But he is an amazing doc per my research, and a huge get for UM's med school. As I am an academic groupie, as Dr. Barry calls me, this is a big deal -- especially since it involves my alma mater, and the fact that my family are major consumers of GI related medical help -- D1 and Wifey get treated at UM -- D1's good friend Morgan is on faculty there, and her latest scope was done by a young hotshot who looks like she is still in high school, instead of the nationally recognized academic doc she is.

So I envy that -- being able to be a philanthropist that way. Paul and I have always been generous donors -- for years, we were in the chips with our law biz, as they say, and always shared willingly. Lately, on account of we're working much less and not making rain like we used to , things are skinnier at the shop -- this coupled with family financial needs that seem to go higher, not lower, on account of I spoil my adult children and grandchildren like no one else I know, except Paul.

As a result, my giving numbers were down in '25, though still more than half my early lawyer salaries.

And if I had Griffin's money...man... I would NOT buy a bigger house, or art, or stuff, but would love to be able to call a college or hospital boss, or Dean, and say "So -- about that new building you need."

Years ago, I read about Sinatra when he lived in Palm Springs, He would read the Deseret News, and see an article about someone's hard luck -- maybe a waitress's trailer burned down. He would call his lawyer in Beverly Hills and have them arrange an anonymous gift -- warning the lawyer that "if this gets out, I'll replace you with some other big shot Jew lawyer."

Man, I loved his political incorrectness, but more importantly that he did that. I do, too, on a much smaller scale -- read about sad stuff, and typically go to a Go Fund Me site and help. I avoid "causes" where I know the people have well off parents -- I figure that those are their responsibilities -- but not many people have well off parents.

Anyway, I never met Griffin, but as D2 said when I shared the news of the latest gift -- he sure has been a nice addition to Miami.

Next week -- Rabbi Yossi and Nechama are hosting a 30th anniversary celebration of their Center. I bought 4 tickets --Wifey and I are going, and hopefully D2 and Jonathan -- if they can't, I'll invite other friends. It promises to be a fun night -- open bar, catered apps, and a comedian named Elon Gold, who is pretty, pretty funny, and is taking a fraction of his usual fee.

I was asked: how about a $5K table? Not this year, I had to say -- but maybe that will happen again, if the chips come back.

But I sure hope Yossi can somehow get connected with Ken Griffin. Griffin is Presybyterian, but might want to help out the special needs work Yossi and Nechama do. Man, I would happily envy that...