Andrew Clements

During a recent trip to the Philippines, I found myself watching the people who keep everything moving. From construction workers under the heat of the midday sun, laborers doing jobs that most would quietly avoid, jeepney drivers bringing people from A to B while barely making a profit. After that visit, I sat down and wrote a poem about their struggles. This is my attempt to turn that reflection into something more.

It was in 1992 that my twin brother Nick and I entertained the idea of starting our own landscape company. We had worked together at two other landscaping companies and were growing restless. We wanted something of our own. Something we could build, not just manage.

The suitcases had already been taken from the car. Around us stood other families saying goodbye to children far too young to understand why they were being left behind. Then suddenly it was our turn.

There are people who pass through our lives briefly, yet leave marks that time never erases. I briefly mentioned him in last week's article, but his story deserves its own telling.

At Jonathan's memorial service, one of the songs he selected was the Bee Gees' Words. At the time, I simply thought it was a beautiful melody, a favorite of ours from the Bangladesh days. Only later did I realize how perfectly it captured his life.

Go to main Forum page » AUTHOR: Andrew Clements on 6/17/2026 A $300 a week drug habit. Over a year, it's more than $15,000.

Several years ago I listened to Requiem: The Story of One Sky by Dimash Qudaibergen, an internationally acclaimed singer from Kazakhstan whose music often explores themes of peace, compassion, and our shared humanity. The song is a plea for peace in a world too often divided by conflict. (I encourage you to listen to it on YouTube.) At the conclusion of the song appeared a quote from Pope Francis:

Go to main Forum page » AUTHOR: Andrew Clements on 7/01/2026 More than forty years after we first met, Mrs. Dolezal sent me a letter shortly before she passed away.

While researching Jonathan's early years, I came across this article he wrote as a teenager for Saga, the magazine at Bryanston School in England. Years later, Jonathan would say this was his “entrée to becoming a journalist.”

WHEN READERS THINK of my younger brother Jonathan Clements, they often picture the longtime Wall Street Journal columnist or the founder of HumbleDollar . They remember the clear financial advice, the thoughtful essays and the quiet wisdom that helped millions make better decisions with their money.