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MATERIALISM


Living to acquire.

Allowing your possessions to possess you.

Energy constantly ‘spent’ on non-essentials.

Conviction that ‘things’ bring you happiness.

A deceit, a conceit of the vain and frustrated.

Believing ‘stuff’ is yours even though it is in transition.

Fruitlessly attempting to conjoin with ‘pieces’ of the world.

Controlling now physically what can determine you psychologically.

Expectations of fulfillment and ‘completion’ that are never realized.

A tragic self-deception that embraces the temporal while ignoring what truly matters: The spiritual.
 

  • Perhaps ultimately matter does not matter.
     
  • Perhaps you cannot own or possess anything but your own thoughts.
     
  • Perhaps peace is unobtainable when a mind is always cluttered with wants.
     
  • Perhaps the value of a thing should be based on its utility not on your vanity.
     
  • Perhaps greed is impossible when you cherish what you are … not what you have.
     
  • Perhaps enjoyment of things comes only from knowledge, appreciation and a desire to share.
     
  • Perhaps ‘trophies’ on your interior mantel are the only ones that will bring a smile to your face.
     
  • Perhaps a life dependent on material things for ‘happiness and fulfillment’ is a life without substance.
     
  • Perhaps the healthiest, happiest individuals are those who lose nothing of themselves when they lose something.
     
  • Perhaps your displays of wealth and worth provide comforting self-flattery; perhaps when someone ‘embraces’ your ‘exhibits’ they are most often envying even resenting you; perhaps you ‘relish’ this.

ESSAY ON MATERIALISM by EDWIN O’SHEA

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