When you look at it that way, you can see how absurd it is that we individualize ourselves with our fences and hoarded possessions.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the absurdity of how we isolate ourselves through material possessions and personal barriers.
Morrie Schwartz's quote reflects on the tendency of individuals to create boundaries and possess material goods as a means of establishing identity and security. It suggests that this behavior is not only absurd but also counterproductive to human connection, as true fulfillment often comes from shared experiences and relationships rather than hoarding possessions.
In practice
In a speech about minimalism, this quote can illustrate how possessions can hinder true happiness.
People are only mean when they're threatened… and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture.
The best way to deal with that is to live in a fully conscious, compassionate, loving way. Don't wait until you're on your deathbed to recognize that this is the only way to live.
Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer more than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims....and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But - how can I put this? I'm almost......drawn to them.
Do the kind of things that come from the heart, When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overhelmed with what comes back
It’s natural to die. The fact that we make such a big hullabaloo over it is all because we don’t see ourselves as part of nature. We think because we’re human we’re something above nature.
Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward.
On the one hand, she is cut off from the protection awarded to her sisters abroad; on the other, she has no such power to defend her interests at the polls, as is the heritage of her brothers at home.
They're animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?
Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem. We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. Over 500,000 people are in our jails who are nonviolent drug users.
The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyon e of us is, from his mother's womb, expert in inventing idols.
The collection of taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny. Under this Republic the rewards of industry belong to those who earn them.
Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.
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