A friend of mine often quotes his grandmother who was fond of saying, "It could a went the other way."  By which she meant that you should be grateful, whatever the circumstances, because providence saved you from something worse.

This week we celebrate a could-a-went of global significance. Monday was the birthday of Cecil Rhodes, (1853-1902).  Rhodes, born in England, joined his brother on a cotton farm in southern Africa at age 16, because doctors thought his weak heart had a better chance in a warm and coal-smoke-free climate. 

His first will, written when he was 24, and already wealthy from what would become the De Beers diamond company, left all of his estate to create a secret society

...for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British subjects ... of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Eurphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire.

Yikes.  One wonders how long a society with such global ambitions would be able to stay secret. Fortunately, Rhodes lived long enough to write another will, in which he bequeathed $10 million to Oxford University for the establishment of the Rhodes Scholarships. One of the criteria for scholarships is "truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship."   

Why did his fortune endow a prestigious award for future humanitarians, instead of how it could a went?  Maybe during that 24 years the VP for Development at Oxford (whatever his title was in the late 1800's) sat down with Rhodes to talk to him about a more enlightened use for his fortune. 

Every day, those of us in the fund raising field are helping donors to make choices.  We are crossing guards at the junctions where money turns one way or another.  If we were not here, just think of how it could a went.