Quote of the Week: On Houses (Kahlil Gibran)

Greed is money's biggest client. Comfort is the context. The money-changers (Wall Street) have built houses made of straw. Read this week's quote from Khalil Gibran:

"And tell me, people of Orphalese, what
have you in these houses? And what is it
you guard with fastened doors?
Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals
your power?
Have you remembrances, the glimmering
arches that span the summits of the mind?
Have you beauty, that leads the heart
from things fashioned of wood and stone to
the holy mountain?
Tell me, have you these in your houses?
Or have you only comfort, and the lust
for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters
the house a guest, and then becomes a host,
and then a master?

Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook
and scourge makes puppets of your larger
desires.

Though its hands are silken, its heart
is of iron.
It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your
bed and jeer at the dignigty of the flesh.
It makes mock o f your sound senses, and
lays them in thistledown like fragile vessels.
Verily the lust for comfot murders the
passion of the soul, and then walks grinning
in the funeral.