"...I shall not want"

Three brothers are engaged in a panel discussion to tell the story of how they have succeeded in life.

"Ambition and hard work," the first one says. "As I went through life, I kept seeing things I wanted, and put in the effort necessary to secure them. I now have all the things I could possibly want, and am looking to become famous as a philanthropist."

"Fortune and contentment," the second one says. "I went through life appreciating every little thing that came to me, and though I worked hard for the things I wanted, I didn't get all of them. Instead, I stumbled across things that were far better than what I had imagined, and somehow can now call myself a rich man because of it. I no longer desire much, because everything that I desired, I already have. Anything else I receive will be a pleasant surprise."

Hearing these contrasting views, the crowd began to murmur. The first man had a reputation as a shrewd and demanding businessman who had never lost a corporate battle. The second, as a cheerful fool who had failed out of college and ended up as a competent but unspectacular carpenter.

The third one cleared his throat, drawing the crowd's attention. "I'm the oldest amongst us," he said. "I grew up wanting many things, and got most of them, the same way my first brother does. I then lost all of them, and found myself appreciating all the small things like my second brother does. I now find myself in a peculiar dilemma. I work hard for the things I want, but nowadays, the things that I want are things that I have less and less control over. I want to bring peace to the world. I want to change somebody's life for the better, and have him show me that bettered life some twenty years later. I want to love and be loved. I want somebody to surprise me with a gift that all assume they don't know how to give. I want to be remembered and yet forgotten, so that the wealths I create stand on their own and are built up further by later generations long after I am gone. And I want to master the art of giving hope and lasting joy to others, so that I may figure out how to go forth and teach it."

"These are the things that burn in my heart. And I can settle neither for being self-centered and greedy, nor for being poor and contented. I know that I cannot accomplish this by being desirous of all things, for it will bind me to the blindness of my own wants. Nor can I be content in all things, for then I will be fate's puppet, happy and rich with what I have for myself, but terribly poor and miserly in what I can create for the world."

"And thus I stand here before you, neither rich nor poor, neither happy nor discontent. What is it that I want in this very moment?"

"I want to go back to the days when I didn't think about these things...for the place where I stand now is so barren and alien that I have nobody to turn to for advice, comfort, or encouragement...and I don't know if I am a trailblazer or someone who has been left behind."

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If there is one thing I am scared of in this world, it is that I am alone in what I hold to be true, and that I am charging forth believing others will follow, while they stand in disbelief and watch me charge headfirst into a ditch.