Power in the world

A conviction that humans have, it may not be absolute but it is very common, is that the world has power over us; the world and various worldly forms impose on us in different ways and they can, and do, make us more through their presence and less by their absence. Money is one example of this. If we have money, if we have a sufficiency of money, we are more and better off. If we don’t have money, if we are insufficient, we are less and worse off. As I’ve said money is one example but certainly not the only one — our body, other bodies (other people), and quite a few other worldly forms have, seemingly, the ability to make us more or make us less. The world itself seems to have the capacity to make us more or less depending on how the world shifts. If the world is cooperative, if the world behaves in a way that we find agreeable, we are elevated. But if the world shifts in a different way and is uncooperative, if the world seems to turn against us in some way and holds out on us, then we are deflated and may even collapse.