Love, Hate, and Greed Without Freud's Thanatos and Eros Theme

Love, Hate, And Greed Are Motivations Three
That Move Most People Occasionally

I have written these lines about love, hate, and greed
So that my thoughts will be easy to read
         Hate is a desire to hurt a man
Greed is for money you get by a scam,
and Love is what most don't understand
Even when told that love is God's plan.
         What is greed, I ask thee
Except wanting more than one needs?
         And in that sense is better than hate
In that you can the greedy berate
And say they could better their fate
If only they didn't over-accumulate,
         Whereas hate is a pleasure entire
In making another suffer in dire
Whose pursuers have no healthy desire
To help lever them out of their moral mire.
         As for love, I did decide
At the age of thirty-nine
That love was something hard to tell
And not merely the emotional pell-mell
Of attraction in moments of romance
So at age forty I gave away
Every book I had that pretended to say
It knew the meaning of love's courage
To suffer in service yet not be sub-servient
Especially if you try to love more than one
Each of whom thinks they deserve the whole sum
Of money you have to spend on everyone.

John Sterling Pettengill                               February 8-9&11, 2002