Wanting and Needing

Humans have desires.  We always want something or other.  That book, that CD, those shoes, those shirts, skirts, scarfs, pants, sandals, etc.  We always want to go places; Spain, America, Japan, India, France, Alaska, Guam, Madagascar, etc.  We always want, want, want, want, want.

But between the thick strings of want, we also need.  For example, we need money to have what we want...most of the time anyway.  Maybe there are cases when we want something and then we just get it.  There are a lot of other things in life that we need besides money.  We need medicine, we need, mostly, an education of some sort, and if we run out of things in the household that will help us stay clean or live a healthy lifestyle, we would also need those things.

Sometimes I think about this when I buy things.  We want something.  We need something.  If you think about it, those two things are very very different.  See, even if we want something, it doesn't necessarily mean we'll need it or anything.  Maybe we don't need comic books.  Maybe we don't need movies.  But want seems to always be stronger than need.  We want comic books and movies.  Sure we know we don't need them but we WANT.  Need kinda loses here.

If we didn't succumb to any wants, what kind of life will we be living?  Like poverty?  Or will we just have a simple life with only the things we need?

Think about all the things in your room.  Think about all the things that are yours, that you own.


Now, think about all the stuff you got because you wanted it.  I'm not saying you're a greedy person.  Nor am I saying we're going to separate want and need so you can give all the wants away.  I just want you to realize how much want you have.  It isn't someone else's problem.  It isn't your next door neighbor's problem.  It's our problem.  We all have lots of wants over a few needs.  When you think about it, we don't even need books.  We don't need music.  We don't need puzzles and games and videos and DVDs.

No, we got them because we want them.

I'm not trying to make a point here.  Just that I would like if you realized, and even thought about, how much want there is in the world and how those are different from needs.