Musin' over Muesli

Here's a quote from a meditation book I have, called Touchstones (Hazelden, 1991):

One of the main reasons wealth makes people unhappy is that it gives them too much control over what they experience. They try to translate their own fantasies into reality instead of tasting what reality itself has to offer. Philip Slater

Recently on a poetry list I am on, we were talking about the often impecunious lives of poets. Not too much was said (only the middle-class proudly call themselves poor in our society) but I am wondering if this quote hasn't hit the nail on the head. To be a poet you must needs 'taste what reality itself has to offer' ... But there is no complete answer because there is no all-embracing question: some do, some don't. I like a poetry with reality in it; some like an escape from their reality. To some, an intellectual reality rises above their physical reality, the 'real' world.

Just musin' over muesli ...