[logos]

I agree that his reference to money is important and valid, but I read it more as a metaphor for almost all human endeavors; that is, we almost always grant greater worth to the means than we do to the end. In fact, I think that propensity to consider the details, as it were, before the end product is what stops us from starting most projects.

When I was a bachelor I often allowed my home to, shall we say, become cluttered. (Ha!) So much so, that there would invariably come the day I knew I had to do something, but looking at what there was to be done, I would put it off again (and again), simply because I couldn't think of any good place to start the job. It took way too long for me to realize that what was important was the beginning; where to begin was totally irrelevant.

It's the details that kill us. How many so-called "art afficionados" spend their whole lives studying the brush strokes without ever seeing the painting? How many people waste their lives counting their dollars without ever realizing that money has no utility at all until it's spent? Yes, indeed, the love of money is the root of all evil; money itself comes in quite handy most days - at least for me. :)

[William McKinley]

Right, I don't read it differently.