ANGER vs MEEKNESS - Day 2

Thoughts throughout the years:

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC):

When anger rises, think of the consequences. 

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Buddha (563-483 B.C.): 

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. 
Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

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Plato (428 BC-348 BC):

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot. 

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Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC): 

Anyone can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person at the right time, and for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not within everyone's power and that is not easy.

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Epictetus (55 AD - 135 AD):

If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase. 

If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: 'I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.' When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods.

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Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603):

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor. 

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William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616):

I do oppose my patience to his fury, and am arm'd to suffer with a quietness of spirit, the very tyranny and rage of his. 

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper sprinkle cool patience.

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Francis De Sales (1567 - 1622):

One of the best exercises in meekness we can perform is when the subject Is in ourselves. We must not fret over our own imperfections. Although reason requires that we must be displeased and sorry whenever we commit a fault we must refrain from bitter, gloomy,spiteful, and emotional displeasure. Many people are greatly at fault in this way. When overcome by anger they become angry at being angry, disturbed at being disturbed and vexed at being vexed. By such means they keep their hearts drenched and steeped in passion.”

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William Law (1686 -1761):

You have no questions to ask of any body, no new way that you need inquire after; no oracle that you need to consult; for whilst you shut yourself up in patience, meekness, humility, and resignation to God, you are in the very arms of Christ, your heart is His dwelling-place, and He lives and works in you as certainly as He lived in and governed that body and soul which He took from the Virgin Mary.

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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790):

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame. 

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Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.

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Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Anger as soon as fed is dead-'Tis starving makes it fat.

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Winston Churchill (1874 -1965):

A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.

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Albert Einstein (1879-1955):

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools. 

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Abraham J. Heschel (1907-1972):

In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.

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Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1988)

Speak when you are angry--and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret.

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Vaclav Havel (1936-2011)

The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.

COVETOUSNESS vs GRATITUDE - Day 3

Hoarding, Greed in Disguise....

For the last two days I have been cataloguing and organizing dvds. I have only gotten through a little over two hundred, out of maybe 600?  Right now there are bets on how many we own. Originally, one family member suggested 300, other guesses were in a similar ballpark.  My current guess is 600-750. Ridiculous, huh?

How did we accumulate so many???

Slowly, through sales. Slowly, as gifts. Slowly, by trends.

The rate that we give it away? Almost non existent.

As  Dr. H. P. Bianchi once wrote: "I would maintain that Americans love stuff, buying it, admiring it, holding on to it, and hate giving it away. In short, we are addicted to stuff." http://catholicreview.org/blogs/fertile-soil/2012/05/27/america-s-addiction-to-stuff

And I agree with him that, "A return to the state of poverty or a job loss is not necessary to understand the true value of goods. We do not need to reject stuff but possess them with moderation, enjoying goods without attachment, giving away more than we keep."

Therefore, one family goal of ours is to eliminate all the movies we can. If it were up to only me, I would get rid of most of them, and keep only a handful - enough to fit on one shelf. I really don't need more than that. However, since this is a family vote, I imagine, we will be keeping an amount way beyond "handfuls".

The next huge pile I need to go through is books.... This is a personal attachment for me and a more active level of greed... "Book sale? Where?" With books, I am addicted to amount and quality. I want to be able to brag to people, "Oh, yeah? Well, have you seen my library?" Having a large and sophisticated library makes me feel important, even more intelligent. Even if no one ever physically sees my library, knowing that I have so many books, I feel well off. However, if there was ever to be a fire and I lost all these books, I would only actually mourn two: my personal everyday Bible (with my notes), and St. Faustina's Diary.  Although, the other individual books could be replaced; I would miss the number more than the books, themselves. I would feel "poor".

To me that is sad. I have often contemplated joining a third order that includes poverty as a vow, but I am too greedy. Books are my obstacle... "Yes, I haven't read that in eight years, but I will NEED it one day! Yes, I NEED every work ever written by Aristotle!!! Yes, I have two copies of that book; but they are different translations so I NEED both of them!"