|
Today's
Meditation:
Why are we so often preoccupied with possessing
things? Why are we so often focused on getting and
spending, accumulating and hoarding? In my life, my
preoccupation with possessions has had much to do with my
need for security, with my fear that I wouldn't be able to
get things later for some reason. So at times I've
accumulated, only to find later that I've had too much and
I've needed to get rid of much of the stuff that I've
spent so much time and effort accumulating.
Wordsworth wrote that "getting and spending, we lay
waste our powers," and I think that Bertrand would
agree with him. If we're preoccupied with getting
more and more things, if our major focus is on what to buy
and how to afford it and when to get it, then there are
many other aspects of our lives that are being neglected,
aspects such as giving and sharing and enjoying and
learning. There are so many other ways that we can
spend our time and energy in more positive ways, yet our
consumer-driven society keeps us thinking that the most
important thing that we can do in life is to continue to
add to our possessions.
But if we want to live freely and nobly, it's very
important that we focus on things that are noble, on
things that don't enslave us as our possessions so often
do.
If we can learn to live with possessions without worrying
whether we lose them or not, if we can enjoy them without
being preoccupied with them, without allowing our
identities to be wrapped up in them, then possessions can
be a great addition to our lives. But if they
prevent us from living freer and fuller lives, then we
really do have to re-examine our relationship with them,
and to try to stop allowing them to overwhelm us and
become preoccupations.
|
