In the deeply profound book, “If You Give A Pig a Birthday Party”, the author, Laura Numeroff, offers us insight into the human condition that rivals most western continental philosophy in the last several hundred years. My daughter, Kyria, was reading this book before school this morning, and I could not help but see the beauty in the authors wisdom. The lesson goes that if you give a pig a birthday party, then there will be a demand for balloons around the house, a specific dress, invitations to all her friends, and so on and so forth. Soon the demands will be too much and overwhelming for whoever offers the pig a birthday party. If you know anything about children’s literature you might recognize these stories. My favorite is still, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”. They all follow the same pattern with the same lesson; a little is often never enough, contentment is allusive. Certainly this is the case for the characters in the story, but the same applies for the human experience. Why is it so hard to be content with what we have? Why are we anxious about what we do not have or what might happen to what we have or whatever may come our way? Is it greed? Is it ambition? What lies underneath our feelings of wanting or needing more from life, others, God?