On page 43 of Boethius in Poem 1, the picture that is painted about good and how we perceive and are even fooled by it sometimes stood out to me. "Just so, by first recognizing false goods, you begin to escape the burden of their influence; then afterwards true goods may gain possession of your spirit." Obviously enough, at a surface level, this makes complete sense. If you drink un-sweet tea, and then go to McDonald's and get sweet tea from there, you will fully understand just how much you were missing out on.
Still, something that stood out to me was how he said that "true goods may gain possession of your spirit." When I thought about it, this was actually a very interesting way of thinking about how we approach or are captivated by things and ideas in our lives. Whether we realize it or not, when we acknowledge desire and pleasure towards things, we commit parts of our spirit to those things, and they "gain possession." Even so, what it says about first recognizing false goods, I would argue that one of the most impactful ways that happens is by experiencing higher goods and consequently "escaping the burden" of lesser ones.
To put a Christian spin on things as well, it is incredible how much easier said than done this is. Even when we come into more understanding of God, we still have to go through a process of getting free from the bondage of sin. All the while, every bit of ourselves that we win back, we ought to give to God that He can possess our spirit.
P.S. I commented on Susan Berner's "Glass Walls and Ivory Decoration"
I agree with you! The idea of "goods," and "lesser goods" are really interesting throughout Boethius, and the idea of things that are in themselves good distracting us from God. If our focus isn't on God alone, then everything else is a distraction.
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