More, More, More

From Hadar's Le Veritable Tarot de Marseille, the Devil; from the Greek Rune Tiles, Omega:

We miss the true depth of pleasure by being intoxicated with the possibility of more.

—Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker

The instincts originally wired into humans that were meant to keep us and our species alive don't work too well in some situations today. We crave pleasure and do whatever we can to avoid any kind of discomfort. But some of the suffering we run from is built into life itself, and other forms can actually help us grow and develop useful tools. Complicating this is the fact that pleasure and pain are processed in overlapping brain regions and work like a balance. When the balance tips too far for too long in one direction, the brain tries to bring it back to equilibrium. As psychiatrist Anna Lembke put it, "The paradox is that hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure for it's own sake, leads to anhedonia. Which is the inability to enjoy pleasure of any kind." The Greek letter Omega is the last letter of this alphabet, and as a result, it often represents the end or completion of something. Neuroscientist Daniel Freedman stated that our world is sensory rich but causal poor. In other words, we know what feels good, but we are much less aware how this pleasure will lead to problems later. Omega suggests that we take a hard look at the long view, the end results and possible problems our habits might create.