The Hobbit: The Yetzer MORE & 'My Precious'

The Yetzer MORE & My Precious  

from The Lord of The Rings

(The Two Towers)

 

The Yetzer MOREring

(The Precious)

Gollum: We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious.
Gollum: He wants the Precious. Always he is looking for it.

And the Precious is wanting to go back to him... But we mustn't let him have it.

            Ever ever so gently, when my Hebrew school report cards came out, my Bubbe  (Tillie) Schwartz would sit down in her chair in the dining room and get out her change purse. With failing eyes piercing through her bifocals, she would gingerly open up that little change purse and take out a dime, putting in on the adjacent cabinet for each ‘excellent.’ (I had very few excellents in Hebrew School as the best students in public school, in competition, sought to be the worst Hebrew school students.) Still, hunched over that precious little change purse, Bubbe would close it ever so gently putting it back into her apron – giving ‘her boylah’ – the two or three dimes – if that.

            What goes up must not go down because ‘it’s ours, our precious” due to the infection of Yetzer MORE.

When there were years where relative to the goal and the risk, the allocation outperformed the required rate of return for the goal, I repeatedly reminded clients and others to remember this as ‘you will be giving some of this back in the future.’ Furthermore, when a fund, for example, did 2x or 3x the required rate of return – I made a point to remind them of the eventual part give back let alone don’t continue to expect this.

Of course, the clients and friends said they understood and recognized this eventuality but when it occurred – the Yetzer MORE  got the best of them forgetting the aforementioned counsel, forgetting that each stock, bond, mutual fund etc is just 1 ingredient in the goal – focusing on the one ‘bad’ one (not the goal even let alone ‘the good ones.’)

Why?

The Yetzer MORE – manifests itself as ‘my precious’ no different than for Gollum – and once the stock, bond, whatever is up – it’s theirs forever at that level (unless it goes higher) and any diminution is taking away, stealing their ‘precious’ even if still on target to or maintaining Enough…

The irony #1: ‘my precious’ more, better, now has a habit of becoming ‘less, worse, later’ in the Sisphusian pursuit of Precious MORE

Where is the power of The Yetzer MORE  derived from?

The Yetzer MORE is a derivative of the Yetzer Hara (the not good inclination) which itself comes from Cain – Acquisition.

And why Cain (as in Citizen Cain) Acquisition?

Acquisition is the perceived antidote or at least palliative to fear of extinction – our sense of self which we identify with our ‘precious’ body let alone being ‘dependent’ and taking ‘crap’ (not having choices being ‘in control.’)

Thus, The Yetzer MORE is not offset by:

·         faith in God and or

·         faith in one’s own adaptability and resourcefulness and or

·         knowing what ENOUGH IS, and or

·         meaning IN one’s life (which is relegated, or put off as ‘being to busy getting More to have ENOUGH which is never ENOUGH’ though at the same time concerned even complaining  about ‘what next in their life,’ or the ‘next chapter in their life’)

The Yetzer MORE OVERRIDES – Hi Ho Silver!! – (is it a good buy?).

The Yetzer MORE is Gollum’s my precious. And my precious is a Yetzer MORE phing of The Yetzer MORE.

And remember: one can die from an overdose of MOREphine – my precious.

Hi Ho Silver!! – (is it a good buy?)