On Good Friday, an admonition to virtue from a Capitalist Asshole.

This article is by Aaron Clary, owner of Asshole Consulting. Seen first at Small Dead Animals.

The House on Lake Minnetonka That Never Existed

Because of its proximity to the campus me and my friends would regularly bike and run around this lake.  Not only for the beauty of the lake, but the architecture of the houses that surrounded it.  And even though one would prefer to run around this lake during summer, one of my fonder memories of the Twin Cities was running around Lake of the Isles at night during winter.

Even though it may have been -5 outside, I still enjoyed running around Lake of the Isles because it gave me my goal, my inspiration, and my incentive to work hard and study hard in school.  I did not come from wealth, but at night (and not in a creepy, stalker type sense) many of the mansions would have their lights on allowing me to kind of peer into these homes and wonder about what life was like on the inside.

What was it like to have a nice warm home and not sleep in a basement?
What was it like to have so much wealth you didn't have to worry about student loans?
Is that a wall oven I see?  Is the wife of that home making dinner?  Gosh, a home cooked meal would be great.
And forget dinner, I bet those people have nothing to worry about. They're RICH.  They got it made.

Spoiler, they weren't rich and they didn't have it made. What they really were was miserable. Envy, greed and hate are the killers of life. Mr. Clary explains, in considerable detail.

Its a bit long, but on a Good Friday with all that's been going on the last few years, and with the Cathedral of Notre Dame burning the way it did, I found this post of Aaron's to be one of the best practical bits of advise on a virtuous life I have ever seen.

The Phantom