The Seduction of Wanting and Having

by John Herlihy

He knows what he wants.

We don’t know what we want.

Let him want what we want.

Let us want what he wants.

Perhaps we should want nothing.

Let us find out what it is we want.

Perhaps we will want for nothing.

Find what we want from what is given.

So many want so many things.

And so many things they don’t get.

What is the good of wanting

Things we can never truly have?

Let us let patience do its work,

Waiting instead of idle wanting.

Finding waiting as patience beautiful,

Finding wanting as desire bountiful.

Wanting may bring the wrong thing,

Wanting things that we shouldn’t have.

Wanting nothing may bring the right thing,

Not wanting things that we should have.

Having can induce further wanting,

Having as a curse that stirs more desire.

If having precludes further wanting,

Having as a blessing, a pigeon on the wire.

What is the good of having something,

If the having is not what you want.

What is the good of wanting something,

If the wanting never leads to the having.

Knowledge tells us to want, then have,

Wisdom tells us not to want, not to have.

Better to want something you don’t have,

Than to have something you don’t want.

Wisdom distinguishes wanting and having,

Wanting things that we shouldn’t have.

Having things that we didn’t want,

Thus, the seduction of wanting and having

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Saturday 18 April 2026