I live a first world life. an abundance of everything at my fingertips. I have never known abject hunger, homelessness, war, lack of access to health agencies, extreme cold and sweltering heat without adequate clothing or shelter, bottomless rejection and emptiness. yet, I am always craving more. my needs never satisfied. even when I have enough for today, I convince myself that I need to set aside some for tomorrow. and when I have enough for that, then next week … and next year and for when I retire and then for my children … and my life becomes bigger and more important to me while the lives of the many who have so much less, who do not even know ‘enough’ seem to pale in importance to me. my big life for their less lives … or no lives. the pursuit of the fulfilment of my sense of satisfaction, security, happiness, well-being, importance, wealth, greed always more important than all the others who have not a chance for life. and I blind my eyes, my ears and my heart to their tears, to their death cries, with the rags of self-justification as I walk on the oppressed, denying that it is I who is their oppressor.