My house within the city

Is richly furnished with plate and gold,

In ivory coffers I have stuff’d my crowns;

In cypress chests my arras, counterpoints,

Costly apparel, tents and canopies,

Fine linen, Turkey cushions, boss’d with pearl.

— Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew. II, 1

What opulence, what finery, what riches that adorned that house and indeed the very life of the owner. So that’s how the other half lives — awash with diamonds and gold, and fine linen to match.

They seem to have everything, but the more they have, the more they seem to desire.

To compound this, they put almost everything else beneath and behind them, as they worship what possessions they may have. This worship of material things is not new, and has been mentioned more than once in the Bible.

Remember when Moses came down from the mountain and saw the people revelling — doing all the funky stuff? But most egregious of all was the fact that they built an idol made of gold and worshipped it.

Their rationale was that their idol was tangible — there to see and touch — so better to worship that instead of some unseen being. If I recall, that golden god took the form of a calf, made from the collected jewellery of the women. People have been taking bull for a long time, eh?

Nevertheless, this was most upsetting as idol worship is a sin. So Moses destroyed that golden idol and beseeched the people to change their wicked, idolatrous ways. But did they? History says no, as his words seem to have fallen on deaf ears; for even though that golden god may have been destroyed, other modern idols have taken its place.

Idolatry anew, that’s what we’ll examine today, right after these adhesive responses to Never Letting Go.

Hi Tony,

Having not much experience in never letting go, I thought the following quotes on not letting go would be appropriate.

‘Sometimes you have to forget what’s gone, appreciate what still remains, and look forward to what’s coming next.’ — Will Smith

‘I say unto you that suffering is not holding you, you are holding suffering.’ — Rajneesh, Indian philosopher.

Wickham

Ontario, Canada

Hey Tony,

My all time favourite quote on the subject is, ‘If you love something, set it free, if it comes back to you, it is yours, if it doesn’t, it never was.’ Sadly, some men twist it and say instead, ‘If it doesn’t come back to you, hunt it down and kill it.’ How sad that people aren’t allowed to exercise free will and move on with their lives.

Sandra

The French have a saying, ‘The more things change, the more they remain the same.’ This is particularly true of mankind and especially the transgressions that our species always seems to be committing.

Maybe no one uses the term idol worship in a negative connotation anymore, except when using quotes from the Bible. It’s used in a positive light when referring to so-called modern-day heroes in society. “Oh, he is my idol. I just love the way he acts in movies.” How often you may have heard the term, ‘matinee idol’. But then again you may not, depending on your age.

So many people idolise other humans, such as sports stars, musicians and politicians. But the negative connotation of idolatry may have eluded some individuals with the passage of time, and the lessons of people worshipping golden idols may have slipped away into the obscurity of ancient Biblical stories.

But idolatry is alive and well. The only difference is what modern-day folks worship. The trappings of society are alluring, appealing, attractive, and just like that house in the quote above, it contains all the gods and demigods that people now worship.

Don’t get me wrong, nothing is wrong with amassing possessions and enjoying them. But when that is done at the expense of basic humanity, then it not only borders on idolatry, but equals it.

How do we define idolatry though? It’s the extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone. I mentioned the human idols earlier, but the inanimate idols of our modern era are many and varied. More and more disciples are worshipping at the altar of idolatry than perhaps back in the time of Moses.

There are some people who are so obsessed with material things to the point where they cannot see anything else. They literally worship what they have and everything else is secondary.

They worship where they live, and the bigger the house and the more expensive the trappings that lie within, is the deeper their idolatry goes. All they speak about is how much they have, how much it costs, and how much it means to them. “What I own means everything to me and I would give my life to keep it.” Would he give his life for his fellowman, his family, his spouse?

This idolatry applies to some people and their cars too, mostly men, as they worship that hunk of metal beyond belief. Not only would they die for it, but they would kill for it too, putting idols before humanity.

Hail the new golden gods of our society, the high-end motor vehicles that are worshipped by so many modern-day people. Some guys nuh live nuh whey, yet they own and worship these expensive machines that somehow validate their existence. “Listen, you can worship your God, I’ll worship my Benz.”

This idolatry goes beyond the grave, or at least in it, as there are reports and videos to corroborate this, of guys being buried in their fancy cars. If I didn’t see it I wouldn’t have believed it.

Let’s segue to the ladies now, who are so fixated on jewellery that it borders on idolatry. Again, did I say borders on… heck no, it surpasses it. Nothing is wrong with women wearing jewellery, for it does enhance their beauty and really makes them more attractive when worn judiciously.

What looks ridiculous is when it’s overdone, with more gold hanging on them than what’s in a jewellery store showcase, and more piercings on their body than a pincushion. It’s when they worship these trinkets of gold, silver and diamonds that it becomes scary.

“Dumb jewels often in their silent kind, more than quick words, do move a woman’s mind,” said Shakespeare.

In other words, you can “catch her” with jewellery. No wonder they coined the phrase, “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”.

There are some women who worship jewellery so much that not only do they wear them in profusion, but they constantly take them out, put them on display and just gaze at them. They’ll lovingly pick up each piece of jewellery, sing its praises, kiss it gently, and whisper sweet words to it.

Then there are others who will tune in to the shopping network on US cable TV and just stare for hours at jewellery. Modern-day idolatry. That’s reminiscent of those people from the Bible who worshipped their golden idol. Idolatry in the modern era.

Many years ago I asked a young lady if given a choice to save her jewellery collection or her husband from a raging river, which would she choose. She paused for a few seconds before answering, which said it all.

A man told me recently, “I know where I fall, her dog comes first, then her car, then her jewellery, then me.”

Idolatry comes in many forms, but be careful what gods you worship.

More time.

seido1yard@gmail.com

Footnote: Here we go again, those taxi drivers who continue to run rampage and create havoc on our roads. For those who had any doubts or were oblivious to the deeds of these road rage monsters, they got a first-hand experience when that video clip was shown on prime time news recently. It captured this taxi driver fleeing from the police, his car full of frightened passengers, one of whom was screaming for her life for him to stop the car and let her out. Her pleas fell on deaf ears as the marauding maniac made his mad meandering run through traffic, putting so many lives at risk. All this was filmed from inside the taxi via cellphone and captured the mayhem in frightening reality. Anarchy rules. Speaking of anarchy, a radio caller suggested to a lawyer talk show host that stiffer sentences be applied for illegal possession of firearm. His suggestion was dismissed. No wonder criminals laugh and crime increases.