To Covet

Hannibal Lecter: And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.

Clarice Starling: No. We just . . .

Hannibal Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day.

From the film The Silence of the Lambs.

In this photo: a tree in our neighbor's yard. Yes, I covet it. I love its bright colors. I admire it every day. There used to be a second tree, fortuitously placed between them and us. But when the local township repaved the road, they cut that tree down, much to our chagrin. So now we are down to just this one. Yes . . . I covet it. I wish we had 10 just like it in our own front yard!

The soundtrack: Black Crowes, Jealous Again.