Waste

Henry Miller said that the American sin is waste.  He got that right!  In the Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven there's a scene where Richard Harris is travelling on a train and shoots birds just to prove his marksmanship. (That isn't like shooting birds so you can eat them!) 

On the American frontier before the big buffalo herds got killed off, some men would came out by train and shoot into a herd and didn't even take the hides--they just wanted the macho thrill of killing a large animal. (I just saw a photo of a hunter next to a giraffe he'd shot, which isn't like shooting a lion!)

But the worst of all wastes is time.  It's possible to make more money than you can spend, but our available time is always limited.  Gambling is something I've never gone in for--if you lose you look like a fool, and even if you win it's a bit like stealing.  But my real hangup with gambling is that  it's a sheer waste of time!

In recent years I've taken to napping in the afternoon. (Since my mother's death, I've become more like her!) I guess that's wasting time.  I also waste time on the computer game Candy Crush Saga.  But right now my favourite time-waster is Twitter, where I get into lots of quarrels.  Whenever someone I'm quarrelling with resorts to obscenities I say, "The first one who cusses, loses."