Not long ago I found myself in a conversation with two gentlemen. In the course of the discussion, the men discussed their businesses, houses, and real estate.
The more they talked, the more insignificant I felt. It was obvious that their business acumen had prospered each of them far above my life holdings. Even their utility bills were astronomical compared to mine, due to the large number of square feet of their dwellings. I would be hard pressed to pay either of their electric bills for one month.
My mind traveled back to a framed “creed” my wife gave me in the earlier years of our relationship. I did not know much about it. I called it a “Creed of Life”.
Just a few weeks ago, as I was preparing to lead a Sunday School class, I found a reference to what I had called a creed. It turns out the creed was actually a poem (though not of the typical rhyming type) titled “Desiderata”, written by Max Ehrmann. (https://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=994) The specific portion of that poem that came to my mind as I listened to my contemporaries discuss their holdings and obligations was:

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

That was exactly what I was doing while listening to these men. They were not bragging—merely discussing. I found myself weighing my life against theirs and finding myself wanting in the area of wealth. I needed to do less comparison with these men and more of what the immediate next three lines of the poem said:

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

The source disclosed above relates that Harvard-educated Max Ehrmann, an attorney and businessman, was always interested in writing. He was widely published before he began to focus more specifically on his writing at age forty. Much of his writing was inspirational because he wanted to leave that type of legacy through his published work. Mr. Ehrmann famous for his writing during his life, but “Desiderata” became well-known after his death. (The fact that I had the poem for years and knew nothing about its origin testifies to that fact.) The title, in Latin, basically means “essential things”.
There is something about the poem that brings to mind Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”. Kipling’s poem (https://www.owleyes.org/text/if-kipling/read/poem#root-2) does rhyme. I remember memorizing it in Ms. Kate Ray’s seventh grade spelling and writing class at Maynardville Elementary in school year 1977-1978, though I seem to have forgotten most of it very soon. While “Desiderata” seems more about giving advice, “If” has a strong focus on how people should conduct themselves when persecuted by others. Both are poems that instruct in developing good character.
So what message can be learned from these poems? Basically, I should not take either myself or others too seriously. Depending on the quality considered, there are many who look better than me in comparison, but also those which I might outshine on a cloudy day. Every person is great in some way, and every person has at least one area that needs improvement. How sad it would be to waste life thinking bitterly of those who seem to get the things we sometimes covet—recognition, money, material possessions, and the list could go on for a while.
There is a part of me that feels pity for my more affluent contemporaries—the physical labor, risks, taxes, utilities, maintenance, and other concerns which I can’t imagine.
What is the essential difference (other than affluence) between my contemporaries and me? Perhaps a few lines from another poem by Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” (https://www.robertfrost.org/the-road-not-taken.jsp#google_vignette), and one much easier to memorize, explains it best.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Be happy, Dear Reader. Love you for who you are. Somewhere someone wishes s/he were you.

ANSWER TO QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 86
What was wrong with the joke about paper? (ANSWER: It was tear-ible.)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 87
Why did the spaghetti tell the meatballs to go to bed? (See the next “Mincey’s Musings” in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.

I Timothy 6: 6-11
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Philippians 4: 8; 11
8“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
11”. . . for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

Comparison is the thief of joy. --Theodore Roosevelt (https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/who-said-co… Retrieved March 24, 2026)