The answer is, resoundingly, no. In both directions, strangely: I have too many possessions (an American, I am whittling everything down to two suitcases in order to move to England) and too little permission to take the time and effort to create art. Too much obsession over my acne, too few pairs of pants.

How interesting. I get the impression that the expectation of the quote’s author is that the answer will be yes, but this is helpful for a different reason: lately I have been asking myself what I want, and the answers have been hard to narrow down. It’s a bit easier to cope with asking “What do I want more of? What do I want less of?”

Which is, I imagine, not what the author intended. But too bad.

I personally have never felt the need to join that particular race because I have never wanted it “all”.

I prefer to have “enough”.

Competition in chasing that elusive “all” never made anyone happy that I could ever see…

Now I’m more grateful for what I have. And I’ve noticed that people who have dealt with some major hardship in their lives are often happier than those who haven’t. I guess we might call that wisdom.

I’m so sorry about your child.

I agree with you. People who have faced a Big Bad sometimes do seem better able to cope with or find humor in small hardships. -M