My down comforter was ripping here and there, scattering
feathers all over my room. So I decided I would go to a place
that sold and fixed comforters. When I got there, I was told
that they couldn't fix it, but they would give me a free down
pillow if I were to purchase a new comforter which was now on
sale at half price and they would donate my old comforter to
a needy family.
Okay. It sounded like a good deal: a free mitzva, a
free pillow, a new comforter. The salesgirl asked me what
kind of feathers I had in my comforter. I said I didn't know;
I'm not a duck. And then I learned that there were two kinds
of feathers, those with a spine and those without. I
discovered the difference when I was drawn towards a
comforter in one of my favorite shades of lavender. The
salesgirl informed me that that was the spineless kind. It
cost four times as much as the one I had opted to buy. I
leaned in against it and discovered why.
It was as soft as anything I had ever touched and as I sunk
my face into it, I knew I could never again feel as satisfied
with a regular feather comforter. I had experienced the
softness of angel wings and one day, I would want to own a
pure down comforter like that one. [And be comforted
forevermore.]
And I thought: what a great subject for my series of articles
on saving money. I could talk about how we needlessly get
used to luxuries and then are spoiled forever; how we enslave
ourselves to our elevated tastes by becoming addicted to the
finer things. How, when we sensitize ourselves to only the
best, we cannot be satisfied with anything that is not as
pure and refined...
But then I thought better of it. There was a loftier lesson
to be learned here. Everyday we work on our spiritual growth.
We try to perfect our middos and are scrupulous in
every aspect of our mitzva observance and then we say,
"That's it." We're done. We've gone as far as we could go.
We've put ourselves through a sieve and purified our
thoughts, deeds and actions as much as is humanly
possible.
And then it happens. We meet someone who's gone one step
further. We find out about something more we could do. We
observe someone performing an act whose dedication and
sacrifice we aspire to and then we realize that there's
something better, purer, lighter than even a feather;
something that, cast heavenwards, will float higher and will
transcend.
We can strive to acquire things of more value or more quality
or we can become people of greater quality, people with
spine. It is the spiritual as well as the physical beds we
make that we sleep in and it's up to us to decided how fine
are the linens we use.
