Where an attitude of thankfulness is not, greed takes root. And that root will only fall to the axe of thankfulness. Therefore, we need to hold both the attitude and the axe ever close so that the roots never are.

I do not doubt the principles upon which this nation has been erected. Nor do I doubt the ability nor the passion of the common person to uphold them. What I doubt are the leaders who get caught up in the drama of their own agendas to the point that the principles of this great republic become the stuff of fodder in the service of those agendas. That is what I doubt.

Betrayal is advancing myself at the expense of the one who I committed myself to advance.

In an alarming turning of the proverbial tables, we repeatedly tell ourselves that what we ‘want’ is in fact what we ‘need.’ And if we ever dare push back our greed sufficiently so that we can catch even the slightest glimpse of the carnage wrought of ‘wants’ unleashed, pursuing our ‘needs’ will quite quickly end up being all that we ‘want.

Incessantly demanding that I am given some ‘thing’ today may very well destroy the role that it was going to play in my life tomorrow.

Entitlement is the shovel that digs a grave of greed. And there are those of us who stand at the bottom of such a grave having thrown out the last shovel full of dirt, never realizing that the grave that we’ve dug is our own until the same shovel suddenly starts backfilling the hole.

Maturity means being able to accept the fact that sometimes the things that we wish for will create the histories that we don’t wish for.

Other than a gaping hole, I won’t leave anything in life by taking everything from life. And if I don’t take anything from that statement, I’ll always be living at the bottom of the hole I’ve dug, wondering where I put the ladder I never had.

To gorge ourselves on everything is to walk away with nothing. And maybe that’s part of the reason why we’re always hungry for something.