Due to personal research, I am currently in
the process of reading a good dozen books,
most of them on the same subject, contrasting
this scientific-literary “round-up” with an
interesting reading about the Marriott family,
known worldwide by their global hotel chain.
John Willard Marriott guided his life, both
private and publicly, by the inalienable values
of integrity, ethics and faith. He started his
business with a small street market selling
fresh beer, in the midst of the Depression,
in the late 1920s, evolving into catering and
hotel management.
J.W., as he was known, died in 1985,
receiving funeral eulogies from prominent
individualities of American society, politics
and the ecclesiastical milieu, including an
intervention by Billy Graham. As one can
read in his son’s biography, Bill Marriot,
coming out in September, President Reagan
himself referred to him as “the living example
of the American Dream,” and “one who
never lost the value of honesty, decency and
hard work…”
One of his last sentences reveals well the
way he truly felt about material goods. “The
best things in life are free,” alluding to the
Moon, which belongs to everyone, and to the
Moonlight, whose brilliance belongs to all.
Nature is free, enjoy it.
PAULO SÉRGIO GOMES
