ENVIRONMENTAL TOXIN: A hypervigilance on those who have more than I—old-fashioned covetousness

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: Budgeting time to hang with those who have no immortality symbols—the poor, the broken, those who don’t build up my ego with their presence.

KEY QUOTE: In Chapter 4 (About-Face), Goetz writes, “The suburbs seem to promote a kind of vigilance on the possessions of others. It includes both a hyperconsciousness of self and a hypervigilance on the possessions of others. It’s a ubiquitous, heightened vigilance. I’m eternally on point to compare myself to those I perceive have more than I. I’m always weighing my immortality symbols against others’.”

KEY DISCUSSION POINTS:

* Why do we strive and compete for the same immortality symbols – the four-bedroom house with the Pottery Barn colors, the L.L. Bean underwear and outerwear, the fuel-guzzling truck, and purebred dog, the family pilgrimage to Disney World, and the athletic and scholarship-bedecked college-bound freshman?

* The answer to the toxin of covetousness and ungratefulness is not a how-to tip or more Bible reading. There’s no straight shot from coveting my neighbor’s wife to feeling grateful for the partner I’ve been given.

* The practice is Kenosis – emptying ourselves of power to be with those who have nothing I really want, nothing I covet.