Sin #3

GREED

"Greed is, like Lust and Gluttony, a sin of excess. However, Greed (as seen by the Church) applied to the acquisition of wealth in particular. It includes disloyalty, deliberate betrayal, or treason, especially for personal gain, as the case when someone lets oneself be bribed. Scavenging and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery are all actions that may be inspired by greed."

www.wikipedia.org

Greed. Again, it abounds. How many people have seen their four year old cousins or siblings produce lists three pages long at Christmas time of all the things that they desparately want, thinking that it will make their lives more complete? Who knows people who spend thousands of dollars a month on clothing? Who value the collection of material possessions more than the collection of friends?

This is something that is incresingly common in a younger and younger age. Children totally obsessed with collecting insane amounts of Yu Gi Oh! cards, or rare old coins, or stamps. The compulsion to have more and more is carried with them into later life, wanting bigger and better houses, cars, boats, holiday homes... They unconsciously teach their children to act the same way. A never-ending cycle of people who can't get enough out of life, who can't be happy with what they have.

It makes me sad that the world has come to this; a place where people cannot be happy simply with the company of other people. People seem to have a need to fill their lives with material possessions to keep them happy, rather than filling the space around them with people who care about them.

I'm not claiming that i'm above falling into the trap of wanting more material things. But, of late, i've discovered that material possessions aren't too good at keeping you warm at night, they don't make you laugh, they don't talk back, they don't listen to you cry. That is, unless you have some mightily cool, newfangled possessions that i'm yet to hear about! So, i'm working on fighting the tide of collecting stuff, so as to work on the non-material things.

Greed seems to stalk every corner of our lives, filling them with all sorts of things that we don't really need, rather than with people. I think that people are the most important things in the world. Screw greed. People - see what's really important here! For goodness' sake!

Annie