Hammered (2)

All of the world’s great religious traditions agree on this: There is something more important happening than me and mine.

Who are my brothers?

Me and mine. Seems like a benign concept until we dig into it, exposing the cloaked inherencies of me-ness and mine-ness. If all conflict derives from selfishness, we may have found the source.

The banality of possession

We are not possessed by evil spirits. We are possessed by our possessions. The more we have, the more we think about what we have. Note Jesus’ attempted exorcism of the rich young ruler, whom he loved. It didn’t work.

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.

Not me

Selfishness continues to be humanity’s most besetting sin. According to this convolution, the rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor. Am I selfish? Of course not. Not me.