"Everybody worships," said David Foster Wallace in 2005. "The
only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe
choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing ... is that pretty much
anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things,
if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough
... Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly.
And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths ... Worship
power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more
power over others to numb you in your own fear. Worship your intellect, being
seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of
being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is ...
they're unconscious". -David Foster Wallace. "Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address."
May 21, 2005.
