Avaritia

Sometimes building ivory towers
Sometimes knocking castles down
Sometimes building you a stairway --
Lock you underground
Its that old-time religion
Its the kingdom they would rule
Its the fool on television
Getting paid to play the fool
Big Money
-Rush

How do we define avarice, or the colloquial term, greed? What separates a healthy desire to improve ones lot in life and a mind bending, life distorting pursuit of wealth or possessions? Is it amounts or percentages? Portfolios and account balances? As is usually the case, the obvious answer is no, but what lies beyond the obvious?

The real cost of greed may well have nothing to do with money, power or wealth, but with loss; and not the loss experienced by the one consumed with greed. To some extent, its not even the loss experienced by those around someone consumed by greed. There is a huge collective loss
in the fulfillment of that greed.

We try to pass off sleight of hand to create a reality that is not ours to have. We charge, lease, finance, mortgage, gamble, pawn, and steal what we cannot rightly own. Upon these, our economy has been laid, slowly supplanting pride of ownership with pride of possession. Then when we can no longer make the payments, we consolidate, start all over again and another foundation stone of our economy is replaced with a playing card. This process is repeated nationwide until we are all living in a teetering house of cards, that inevitably must fall. But even so, the damage goes deeper.

Because we all seem to play make believe with reality, our judgement of value and values are clouded. When nearly anything can be within what appears to be our grasp, nothing means anything any more. While that sounds like simple wordplay at first glance, it is true. We simply objectify everyone and everything, tangible or not, and put it down on our mental balance sheets. We try to buy love with money (real or fake) or possessions which are not really ours in the first place, and thus the object of our desires is devalued.

When nothing we possess is owned, it has no value. Ask any teenager with their first car. "A car, bought and paid for, is polished. A car given is driven and wrecked." We sub-contract our lawn mowing, because we work too much to mow the yard, because the yard is so big, we don't have the time, because the mortgage is too large. It's not our yard anymore. If we don't care for it, its not ours.

All that show is for naught, because the yard in front of the house we don't own, is just like every other yard on the street, that is mowed by the same landscaper, because everyone is at work on Saturday evening.


And the children are home.

Alone, with a babysitter.