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#104: "Want is a growing giant..."

Updated: Oct 12, 2022


A boy in traditional Chinese farmer clothing holds a hand to his shirt. Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover Ralph Waldo Emerson Inspiring words beautiful Chinese painting children's illustration

From "Conduct of Life: A Philosophical Reading," this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson is evocative, but I sometimes think it is only a partial picture. What we may take away from it at first is that we must vanquish the giant called Want, but to desire nothing is neither human nor is it entirely achievable for the majority of us.


Instead, maybe the goal is to coexist with this giant, to be aware of it and understand it. To understand what motivates it and what makes it grow. It is not by rejecting desire that we find peace, but rather by going through it.

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