Day 6 - Avarice

George Herbert, one of the great Metaphysical Poets, has this really cute poem on the paradox of money:

Avarice

Money, thou bane of blisse, & sourse of wo,
Whence com’st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine?
I know thy parentage is base and low:
Man found thee poore and dirtie in a mine.

Surely thou didst so little contribute
To this great kingdome, which thou now hast got,
That he was fain, when thou wert destitute,
To digge thee out of thy dark cave and grot:
Then forcing thee by fire he made thee bright:
Nay, thou hast got the face of man; for we
Have with our stamp and seel transferr’d our right:
Thou art the man, and man but drosse to thee.
Man calleth thee his wealth, who made thee rich;
And while he diggs out thee, falls in the ditch.

Here, Herbert sees avarice succinctly expressing the paradox of money, which becomes the drudge when we elevate it into sovereignty, stamp our image on it and worship it. Inevitably, people who behave like that fall into the ditch, because of the blindness that results when we refuse to look on the real world of God, but persist in following our own corruptible sin. (http://trushare.com/91DEC02/DE02FAFA.htm - I've been up all night so I didn't feel like typing out a whole explanation myself)

Anyway, I think that this is a very potent message and I just thought that I'd share it.