An Appetite for the Infinite
"A friend of mine in New York, a philosophy professor, is fond of getting into philosophical discussions with taxi drivers. He has a favorite story he likes to tell. It begins with the cabdriver showing an inclination to talk about himself, and so my friend, Norrie, asks, 'Are you happy?' No, says the cabbie, too many problems. 'What would make you happy?' 'Give me a million dollars, and I'd have it made.' 'All right. Let's suppose you have the million dollars. What will you do?' He said he would pay off all his debts. 'Fine, they're paid. Now what?' 'Well, I'd buy a house. Maybe two or three houses, in different climates.' 'Good. Now what?' 'I'd want a wife. As long as we're fantasizing, I'll take several — let's say in different cities, and I could travel around to them.' 'Done. Now what?' Then he proposed to travel, to indulge his hobbies, to see and do things he's always dreamed of and each time Norrie agreed; 'Granted. What more?'
"After a while the driver began to quiet down. Then he suddenly turned around, right in the middle of a crowded avenue, giving my poor friend quite a fright, and said, 'Say, there's something funny going on here. I can't seem to get to the bottom of all this. What am I really looking for, after all?' At that point the philosopher had him hooked and was able to show him that the human being has an unlimited capacity for the good, for happiness — or better, we have a capacity for the Infinite, for nothing finite satisfies us. No matter how much we have, we don't feel that this is it; we want to go on.
"But what kind of being is it that has a capacity for, an appetite for, the Infinite? We don't yet know our secret self. We don't yet know our heart's desire. Prayer and fasting help us find them."