Enough Is as Good as a Feast!

By Park Nahm-Sheik

Enough is as good as a feast. Feast may be defined as “a sumptuous repast that typically serves to mark a milestone in our life.” We may be honored with such a celebratory banquet on a momentous day. It is pretty much the norm for jubilees like golden, diamond, and platinum anniversaries of birth, weddings, coronations, or inaugurations.

Whereas “Enough is as good as a feast,” mind you, more than enough can be too much. If in excess, for example, even nectar can be poison. Sometimes we can end up with too much of a good thing no matter how paradoxical that may sound. Think of wine, for example, as an accompaniment to a jolly occasion.

“Bacchus has drowned more men than Neptune,” as they say. This wisecrack surely delivers a dire warning against all dipsomaniacs of the world, which hopefully sounds spine-chilling enough to scare everybody away from too much to drink.

Beware, all fun lovers of this world. Pleasure is short, but repentance is long; mark these words. “Too much suffocates and too little does not satisfy” also speaks to middle ground as our protector. Moderation is indeed the securest haven for all weary wayfarers of this world.

“Enough is as good as a feast” or “Too much is as bad as too little” is arguably a global rule of engagement for humankind. This canon governs the entire spectrum of human behavior, including education. Let’s not forget that we are all but human at best. Nothing in this world lasts forever, if you know what I mean.

Born greedy and ambitious, we always have our sights set on getting treated to one feast after another until the very end. No wonder, we are conditioned to “aim high,” “hitch our wagon to a star” and “shoot for the moon.” It is not surprising then that we all choke on desire, ever greedy for worldly goods such as power, wealth, and fame. We must, however, beware of this never-ending quest for high places, which always come with their precipices. As soon as we open our heart to such undying ambition, we simultaneously close it to any semblance of peace of mind, of repose, and of serenity.

The way out of this quandary lies in the golden mean. We must thus always resort to moderation in whatever it is that we seek to attain in this world. We can never hope to be above and beyond the command of moderation so long as we are stuck to the gravitational network of heavenly bodies. As for our being glued to the surface of Planet Earth in the middle of the firmament, it is positively the greatest of all blessings afforded us mortals. If not for this one-of-a-kind privilege, we would all fall to our precipitous ends virtually in the middle of nowhere.

In closing, let me remind you all that the greatest wealth is contentment with a little. Rich are not those who have much, but those who are content with what they already own. Content is all. Always remember that content lodges oftener in humble cottages than in imposing palaces.