Have you noticed the gods of possession, pride, and power, are at war within you? Possessions demand our committed allegiance. Pride calls on us to inflate our own importance. Power, and the desire to rule over others, or to be better, stronger, or louder, asserts itself within some hidden cave in our psyche repeating the mantra “more is better” or some other such nonsense.

Yet it is these very gods which, in claiming or desiring our focus, do not serve us well when offered the perverse allegiance they demand. It doesn’t take the accumulation of very much to know that possessions fall very short when expected to deliver happiness. Then pride, the swagger of self-importance, even displayed by one who might have accomplished much, makes the proud person into a fool.

As these gods try, with varying degrees of success, to assert their power within me, I try to remind myself that “less is more”, that our mothers were right when they said “pride comes before a fall.” I try to recall South African author Alan Paton’s immortal words, expressed through the pious Msimangu in Cry, The Beloved Country, that to love others is a most worthy pursuit, for when a man truly loves he seeks no power.