What Fagin, the bad guy, gave Oliver Twist was far from enough. Poor boy, he was always hungry. He always wanted more.
Is our country, indeed our people, still in the situation of poor Oliver? Do we want more because we do not have enough? Or have we got stuck in wanting more just for the sake of having more?
Look at the giant traffic jams of new, luxurious cars stuck on our freshly resurfaced roads. So comfortable but so useless! Look at the myriad eating places, bars and restaurants crammed with tiny tables packed back to back with clients. Look at our super- and mini-markets, overflowing with bustling crowds and imported employee-servants. Look at the construction sites mushrooming wherever a blade of grass used to grow on our island. Look at our marinas and harbours: luxury yachts clog our harbours and overcrowd our beautiful beaches. The economy must really be hot. Is it overheating?
All we hear around us is one deafening scream: “Sir, may I have some more...?” Oliver said it because he did not have enough to survive. We are saying it because we’ve reached a point when enough is never enough. Our need has metamorphosed into greed. And greed becomes a need that nothing and no one can ever satisfy. Greed gets stuck in the ‘more’ and drowns in the ‘not enough’.
When this happens to an individual it is a tragedy. When it happens to a nation it becomes a disaster. When it becomes a way of life it is popularly called ‘pigging out’.
Within our tiny, fragile, myopic existence, God has planted a super vision, an endless horizon, an infinite and eternal life
But on a totally different level, the greatest gift God has given us is precisely our burning desire for more. Something deep inside us tells us that we are made for greater things. Our destiny is to become more than who and what we are. As Josh Groban beautifully puts it: “When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary, You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains. You raise me up to more than I can be!”
We have been made for greater things, to reach up higher than the mountains, travel further than the stars, see way beyond our piggy instincts and embrace a life that has no end. We have been born to be creators, not consumers; lovers, not prostitutes; angels, not petty demons. Right within our tiny, fragile, myopic existence, God has planted a super vision, an endless horizon, an infinite and eternal life.
It is this gift that we misread and mistreat. We have been created with a thirst for infinity which we try to quench with a bloated craving for food, money, power or fame. We simply misread and mistreat the gift we have already received, ending up in an insatiable and enslaving addiction for more.
To receive the more we have been created for, all we need to do is to let go of our fears of tomorrow and open our hearts to the gift of today; to rejoice in giving rather than be obsessed with the getting; to embrace the pain of loving to gain the joy of living. It is choosing happiness over pleasure, service over power, giving over grabbing.
A full and lasting life is when we discover that we have indeed been made for greater things – not the ones we consume or which consume us, but the ones we give freely, lovingly and with a joyful smile. Only this makes us more than we can be!
Let us stop foolishly asking how to grab more, and start asking how we can give more. Because, when all is said and done, it is only what we lovingly give that will remain really ours. Then we’ll need nothing more – not even time!