Flight Paths

"The power that we ascribe to these idols that we have set up for ourselves [money, possessions, power, approval] is evident in the way we pour ourselves so devotedly into pursuing their demands and are so wrapped up in fears of their loss. We would willingly go to the end of the earth to do their bidding, and we regularly sacrifice on their altars whatever they demand. They fill our dreams and our nightmares, and they shape our expenditures and our relationships. They are profoundly expensive masters, both in financial terms and in terms of the turmoil that they create in our souls. Yet in the end, like all idols, they are impotent to deliver what they promise or threaten...Tracing back the smoke of our strong desires will lead us to the smoldering fire on the altar we have erected to our idol."

I.M. Duguid, Numbers, 284,88