Let Me Live Again

George does not need greeting-card sentiment about self-esteem, affirmation, or “self-care.”  George’s struggle is biblical. He is fighting off visions of what Ecclesiastes calls the “vanity” or “vaporousness” of life.  “For the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God” (Ecc. 2:26). To work, to strain, to sweat and strive and cry, only to finally have nothing to show for it—this is a curse. God’s blessing does not excuse from labor (as the rest of the wisdom literature makes very clear), but it does protect the wise man from the shame of dis-ownership.