Embarrassment of Riches
– An overabundance, more than enough of a desired or needed thing.
It doesn’t have to refer to material wealth, although that too, reasonably, is encompassed in the description.
– Most people I approached to talk about their finances for this article were as shocked as if I’d asked them to discuss their intimate bedroom secrets. They refused to participate. “Not even my parents know how rich I am”, or “I’ll sound like a show-off”, were typical replies. — Julia Llewellyn Smith — The Telegraph, 2013
“Today my husband made tens of millions of dollars for his clients.”
It’s too easy to get stuck in a materialistic world-view when hearing this phrase. The expression in question supposedly originated in 1738 from John Ozell’s translation of a French play, L’Embarras des richesses (1726).
“L’Embarras des richesses” might be better understood in English with the connotation “agony” rather than “perception of loss of honor or dignity”.
Buridan’s Ass (Donkey)
If you have an embarrassment of riches, you may have so many good things or options, that you cannot decide which to have or do, and that causes you anxiety.
It brushes on the nature and essence of lust and greed:
In Catholic religion, there is only one kind of justified avarice.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for truth, for they shall be satisfied.”, Matthew 5:6.
“Why me?”
Embarrassment of riches is akin to survivor’s guilt | survivor’s syndrome; which is when a person feels heavily burdened by overcoming a traumatic event where others have died or otherwise succumbed. Many first responders like fire fighters or police often experience helplessness after the death of a colleague or after not having been able to help victims of a traumatic event.
The term “Survivor guilt” is said to having first being documented and discussed after the Holocaust.
“I didn’t ask for this”
Colloquially speaking, embarrassment of riches is “the agony of choice” or the “guilt of privilege”. Often both. The struggle is real.
