The pastor's sermon on Sunday was mostly about dissatisfaction, and one illustration noted the "ironical fact" that "it's often in the wealthiest communities where things are most messed up." The point was that we're not so much dissatisfied with any particular thing -- if we're of that temperament, we'll always manage to find something to be dissatisfied with. I've seen it in myself and others around me.

And it occurred to me that there's probably not so much irony in that illustration: it's that temperament that drives certain people to always seek greater wealth (which some people succeed in doing). So blessed indeed are the poor in spirit. The real challenge is to recognize that we're evolutionarily designed to try to continually improve our circumstances (running to stay in one place in the overall competitive milieu), and notice when that's working against us.