The Distress of Abundance

At times an excess of knowledge and an excess of material distance us from the goal rather than bring us closer to it. Kohelet already put this into words with painful precision: "He who increases knowledge increases sorrow." What people casually call "rich people's problems" is not always indulgence or complaint, but a faithful description of a real burden born precisely of abundance, of a multiplicity of sources, of a multitude of thoughts and ideas that flood the soul before they have had time to become clear. And we know this well in our generation, which is a generation of abundance. At times we long for what is called "the simplicity of old," which held great poverty but less confusion. One of the deep trials of our generation is not to accumulate more and more, but to know how to focus, to select, and to allow a few but rooted things to settle in the soul and become a pulsing life. The heaviness we feel is often due to an excess of possibilities and fantasies that accompany it. It is worth remembering this...

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