Desire, again

Our desires are narrow, specific, repetitive and opportunistic. We conform to them, not they to us. There’s no benignity in a desire. After a while we start to look like what we want.

Profiteers and pornographers

Where am I headed if I’m excellent with money but lousy with myself? Profiteering, almost certainly. Pornography, possibly. Do-gooding, maybe.

Possessed

Do I need what I want? No. What I need, I already have. Getting what I want requires the expenditure of effort. What is acquired through effort will require more effort to protect and maintain. That is what all effort leads to—more effort.

Institutional self-interest

Christianity’s greatest achievement is also its biggest mistake—a theology based on the otherness of God.