Necessity
The Bare Minimum
“One of the problems with being relatively wealthy if you are a parent is that you cannot provide your children with necessity.”
I often wonder what I would be like if I had been raised in a relatively wealthier family. When it comes to making decisions–I don’t think I would have joined the military. I don’t believe that I would have had to work as hard to make up for the sub-par education I received as a high schooler. There are many things to complain about, but it all dissipates when I think of the one thing I did learn to understand and appreciate. My parents both taught me the importance of necessity. The groceries we bought were always on sale or at a reduced price. My summer vacation was free museums, historic parks, or the public library. I lived a sunny childhood, full of happy memories. Although I knew that I didn’t have many of the extra things or extraordinary experiences some other kids had, I was content. I loved living my ordinary life. Reflecting on my experience and the lives of others, I realize the importance of contentment and what it takes to have such an attitude and perspective.
It could get overwhelming and overstimulating when you have almost anything you could ever want. The widespread 21st-century desire to obtain and acquire as much as possible was counteracted by minimalistic movements. These movements were born from disgust with greed or superficial desires to have a form of clout. The need to own many things turned into things imprisoning us…companies boosting sales by manipulating people into thinking they were purchasing necessities.
However, the underlying virtue in reducing how much you own or experience is the creativity that comes from wanting and pursuing something more. From innovative discoveries like the analytical machines capable of computing numbers to the creation of the internet…the need for something better is a necessity in and of itself. The minimality of resources allows an individual or group to focus on creating solutions for current problems. The struggle, the desire to have something better, drives us most. Happiness is the journey uphill, not the temporary satisfaction of consuming the rewards from what we create and develop. We all have probably heard this at some point in time. Yet, in moments of dissatisfaction, we forget that setbacks are opportunities. These experiences of dissatisfaction allow us to take the time to define the type of lifestyle and experience we’d find contentment in having at the end of our days.
