“I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as fragmented people make for better consumers…things exercise a certain tyrrany over us…I recall St. Teresa of Avila’s wonderful prayer of praise, ‘Thank you, God for the things I do not own.'” p. 35
“Our culture’s ideal self, especially the accomplished professional self, rises above necessity, the humble, everyday, ordinary tasks that are best left to unskilled labor. The comfortable lies we tell ourselves regarding these “little things”–that they don’t matter and that daily, personal, and household chores are of no significance to us spiritually–are exposed as faleshoods when we consider that reluctance to care for the body is one of the first symptoms of extreme melancholy.” p. 40