Manna is a resource which miraculously supports life.

In manna we find all we need to fuel our bodies and focus our minds as we continue our journey. And while, conceptually, we understand that manna is above and beyond our ability to create, we can’t resist the temptation to own the means of its production. We can’t convince ourselves that it will continue to flow from Elsewhere.

So we take matters into our own, feeble hands and begin to make the stuff. And in doing so, create manna factories, and manna corporations, and manna small businesses, and manna brands.

And while the manna we create is fine, it does not compare to that which came before. Yet, even after realizing that our manna is insufficient we stay on our misguided path, and eventually forget that only Elsewhere can produce what we desire.

With no recollection as to why the manna we produce never quite hits the mark, we begin to become obsessed with Mammon—the manifestation of the material world. We convince ourselves that if we master the elements we will one day fashion the manna our ancestors mythologized. Trial after trial, product after product, our attempts fail, and our manna remains putrid.

Eventually though, Elsewhere notices our miserable excuse for manna and offers again to become our source, and in doing so gives us a choice to keep our rotten goop, or to accept the manna that only it can produce. Unfortunately, even though some of us make the trade, most of us remain unconvinced, and cling to that which we instinctively know to be a miserable imitation of what we really want.

Of course, this scenario only describes the outcome of the Mammon-obsessed manna-denier. Which means, there is an another way to go about refusing that which we are made for, and that which was made for us.