The whole trick

Because here's something else that's weird but true:
in the day-to day trenches of adult life,
there is actually no such thing as atheism.
There is no such thing as not worshiping.
Everybody worships.
The only choice we get is what to worship.
And the compelling reason for maybe choosing
some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—
be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess,
or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—
is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
If you worship money and things,
if they are where you tap real meaning in life,
then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough.
It's the truth.
Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly.
And when time and age start showing,
you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.
On one level, we all know this stuff already.
It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables;
the skeleton of every great story.
The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

David Foster Wallace, This Is Water: Some Thoughts,
Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life