The sun sets on another day…
Sunset was filled with clumpy rain. I am betting tomorrow morning we will have a clumpy rain front yard.
I have written about wants and needs before. Actually I wrote about them in a post titled Wants and Needs. I wanted to take a second today and at least think about the wants further. It was funny when I originally read about wants and needs and the ideas are quite diverse. The core items always seem to be food, water and shelter. Some people add clothing to that, but I feel clothing is a subset of shelter. (I suppose we can debate that).
From there people seem to go quite crazy. The ideas push the envelope and translate shelter into safety and a host of secondary items that could easily be considered frivolous. Everything from Health, to financial security, and a thick savings account. This series of ideas has changed a lot, and we have modernized it even further to self actualization and more with very little focus on what we “Need” and more of a focus on what we may or might need, and what we want. The debate could rage on with modern doctors if they ever faced a true survival situation. Somehow I don’t think a bear in the woods hunting you is going to all you to fulfill your need for “Contribution and Creation” (Dr. Kenneth Acha). I also am not sure I agree with many of the definitions of wants versus needs that are defined in all the tomes of opinions out there.
I will pause here and note that facts are indisputable, there can be no exception, science is a process to determine the order of our surroundings and perhaps determine facts (but not as often as people think, and opinions are ideas that may or may not be true. My posts are mostly opinion, a fact would be the speed of light in a vacuum is 186,282 mps as we can currently measure, and opinion would be that the light is bright, and the science would be defining “bright” based on a criteria set by a particular group of people, then agreeing on it until the group of people changed.
Wow, that got deep and that last info is probably unnecessary, but at least it sets a records straight.
Anyway, as far as wants and needs I divided these many time in my posts, but our basic human needs are food water and shelter, then we get into a subset of wants that can fill a small country. (Yes, I am going somewhere with this) Our wants, in my opinion, are what define us more than our needs. We can be a person who needs food, but wanting french fries versus asparagus defines us as an individual more than shoving raw grain into our maws. (Maybe we agree, maybe not)
Too much foundation? Maybe.
I am in the process of writing my sixth book in the Masterson files series and I was swirling in the idea of wants and needs as 2 characters wanted a relationship, and a third character was explaining how that relationship was defined. It was there that I saw past the words on my screen for a few moments and considered the complexities of what we want. They can be rather daunting, but maybe the largest want is a desire to exist well.
I realize this almost seems like a complex rant but bear with me a few more sentences. We are who we are because of our wants, our needs rarely defining us, instead our want to be special, our want of love, our want of empathy, our want to do the right thing, our want to give, our want to control, our want of wanting and a list as long as this planet make us unique, and set the foundation of “us”. Perhaps it would have been simpler to say just that. Our needs allow us to exist, our wants make us who we are.
So what makes you who you are? Do you want to make yourself happy? Do you think about someone else? Do you want to be the center of attention or do you want to fade to the background? All of these type of questions are amazing, and give you an ability to be all you can be. With that in mind, consider your wants and maybe find a path to having a good day every day, because what I want is for people to see past themselves, and for me to continue to learn every day, and to find passion in all I do. (I know, there is a lot more, but I am being basic now as I approach 1000 word post when I usually write 300 a day).
So as the sun sets on another day, I hope you and I can find out wants together, and realize our needs are finite, but our wants, and ourselves, and potentially infinite. I hope you get all you need, and a lot of what you want out of life, and in the process, enjoy every day, no matter what.
Sleep sweet, love life, and maybe love is a need and chocolate a want (naaaa)….