How much do we really need? How much food, drink, drugs?
How big a house, or car? How much power?
How much flattery? How much time for ‘just us?’
When we consider only ourselves, often no amount is too much.
So here’s another virtue to consider–Temperance.
Temperance is, in short, moderation. Moderation not only in eating and drinking, but in our other habits–in fact in everything we do as human beings.
A Fable from Aesop tells about what can happens when we are greedy for too much.
A GREEDY HUNTER one day shot a fine Deer, and ere he could dress it, a pretty Fawn came that way, and an arrow brought it to the ground. A Boar now chanced to be passing, and the Hunter wounded it so that it lay on the ground as if dead. Not satisfied with this game, he must need pursue a Partridge that came fluttering near, and while he was doing so the wounded Boar regained enough strength to spring upon him and kill him. A Wolf came that way, and seeing the four dead bodies, said: “Here is food for a month; but I will save the best, and be content today with the bow-string. But when he seized the string, it loosened the fixed arrow, which shot him through the heart.”
Moral: The greedy man and the miser cannot enjoy their gains.
Today, one of the most obvious ways a person can lack temperance is through his/her own vanity.
So, how much is too much when we continue to stand in front of the mirror, obsessing over our looks??
Translating a World on the Edge 