Qui genus iactat suum, aliena laudat.
(Seneca, Hercules Furens 340-41)

The one who brags about his own kind praises foreign things.

(pron = kwee GAY-noos IAHK-taht soom ah-lee-AIY-nah LAUW-dat)

Comment: If I spend my time and energy talking about (bragging about) my own
(things, family, accomplishments, ideas, ailments, crises, problems, money,
job, possessions, etc) then I am investing myself in "foreign things."

Why are all of these things foreign--my family, job, ideas, successes, diseases,
possessions--after all, they are MINE! They are not foreign at all!

Except--which of any of these is really who I am? As dear as they are to me,
and as identified as I might be with any of these, finally none is who I really
am. And to devote myself, my talk, my energy to any of them, ultimately, avoids
being who I am. They are foreign.

I would suggest that on this coming weekend when religiously the crucifixion and
resurrection stories will be memorialized as an historical event by many, that
it might also be a different kind of reflection: death to (letting go of)
things that are not really who we are, in order to rise to (wake up to) what is
most honest and most true about who we are.

The one does not come without the other.