Greed

Poland itself survived its difficult birth and even flourished for a time. It had not won back all its historic territories, but it was still a big country and it had its window on the Baltic. These gains, however, came at a huge cost. The powers, even the French, thought the Poles greedy and feckless. And its neighbors had much to resent: Lithuania, the Vilna region; the Soviet Union, the 150-mile-wide strip of what had been Russian territory; Czechoslovakia, the conflict over Teschen; and Germany, the corridor and Danzig. In the summer of 1939 Poland disappeared from the map yet again. -MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919. New York, 2001., underline mine-

Greed is a funny thing. It creates within each of us a desire for more and more while feelings of justification that all the excess we desire - we simultaneously deserve. Even when others [including our friends & allies] point out our selfishness, we tend to retreat to our own selfishness that they must be wrong and do not understand the pains we feel or why we deserve more. I cannot help but identify with Poland in 1919. It understandably wanted its own country and right to exist. It understandably had past grievances & injustices that it wanted paid back. Yet in its quest for all that it "deserved," Poland became alienated by creating hostility & resentment from all those who surrounded it. Eventually this lead to its downfall. What is the cost of all our greed and selfishness? At what point have we overstepped our boundaries in our quest to get all the injustice done to us paid back? In the end is it really worth it to us to gain while creating resentment all around us? Unfortunately, greed blinds our eyes and hearts to seeing the devastation we cause by the pursuit of self. Poland paid dearly for it. What will the cost be in my life for all my own greed?