Prosperity

I just read something again that Thomas Carlyle said and boy it makes an impact. “Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are one hundred who will stand adversity.”
Prosperity is a problem I think I would like to have. but I reckon if I have enough, I am prosperous.   Though I hate to admit it, prosperity can be hard to handle.  I know of few things that cloud direction as easily as prosperity does.
I know of no one who wants adversity, but everyone it seems wants prosperity.  Yet prosperity can become an end in itself.  It is so easy when I have more than I need, to want more.
In one sense there is nothing wrong with that.  It is when I squeeze out other good stuff, I have a problem.  Many of the world’s richest people have become philanthropists.  They are giving big time to worthy causes.  Causes that will help more than just themselves.  It can take a while to come around, but to come around is good.
It seems to me that financially either a person is in want, or they have more than they need.  My question is how much do I really need?  Providing there is enough, then what is left over is available.  I can’t take it with me, and kids today are often more affluent than their parents were.  So the question for me is what to do with the excess.
My thinking is, if I do not have it in the first place, I cannot give it.  I need to always be responsible with what I have, but responsibility does not mean that all but prosperity is excluded.  The amazing thing is, when I give, I tend to get back.
I was purchasing something from someone and asked for a minuscule discount and they would not give it.  I thought you will always have trouble with finance.  It really felt like they were clinging tightly.
I don’t reckon it applies to just finance.  If I cling tightly to something, so often it slips through my fingers.  Things matter and are important, but I have always found that the tighter I hold something, the more likely I am to lose it.
As much as I would like to think it is otherwise, what I have is on loan to me.  As a song I like says “this skin and bone is a rental.”  I cherish and love and look after rentals, but I know it is never mine to keep.
I think of Smeagol in Lord if the Ring.  He became obsessed with the ring.  It could do much more than he imagined but he was obsessed to the point of being changed.  Not instantly, but gradually.  If I become obsessed, I am changed, and not all change is good.
I saw this week someone who I thought was clinging too tightly to something.  It seems so often a sign of clinging too tightly is having unrealistic expectations.  There is no plan B.  Great stressor.   Adversity is self-made.
It doesn’t have to be that way though.  I don’t want my name in lights or to be held up as a good example.  I do want though to be content in myself.  Whatever it takes really.