Sticky

“Swami, is economic prosperity a good or bad thing?” Economist Arthur Brooks asked a Hindu swami that question while in India recently.

The swami replied, “It has saved millions of people in my country from starvation. . . There is nothing wrong with money, dude. The problem in life is attachment to money.”  The Tibetan word for "attachment" means in English "sticky desire."

In America, roughly half of us are worried about the inappropriate compulsion to get material things at Christmas (and the rest of the year). We've heard this:  it's okay to have money but not for money to have you." It's stickiness when money has you.

Christians would agree with the swami on this point (read what Jesus says in Luke 12:15).

Just wondering . . how much of the stuff we got for Christmas could easily fall out of our hands, and how much would stick to our fingers like half-eaten candy?  What are we too attached to?

From "Abundance without Attachment," by Arthur Brooks at nytimes.com