There are a lot of things we want in life, and few things we actually need.
Which is not to say that what we want isn’t important: it is. And be assured that as time goes by and the billionaires keep making more money and we make less, they, the government, and corporations – through their trusty “news” “services” – will instruct us on how we shouldn’t want so much, and should be grateful for our daily bowl of lentil soup. After all, if things get as bad as what they hope, er, predict, then we may only get it every two days. Along with our weekly cold shower.
But for now, they want us to continue to buy things we don’t really need so that they can make more money, because money equates power, and both of those are things the parasites need.
But for real people, ordinary genuine people who really want to live their lives freely in peace and dignity, have good things (and enough of them) to eat, live in a safe, warm place, and be with and around people we love, our true needs are basic, rich, and deep:
We don’t need the latest plastic toy. We don’t need the latest techie-surveillance item. We don’t need to look or dress like some celebrity who is famous for . . . it’s hard to know these days. We don’t need a TV, and honestly, we’d be a lot happier (and able to think better) without one.
What we need are the items in paragraph 4 – freedom, peace, autonomy of body and mind, enough (quality food, not manufactured lab pap) to eat, a decent place to live, and interaction with people we love. And we need dreams, goals, a purpose of goodness for living our lives. These aren’t wants, these are needs, and we must be careful about equating them with material items sold by billionaires.
The artwork, Taking Flight, is an invitation to us to look beyond the shallow world of advertising, propaganda, politics, inane entertainment, fearmongering, and the mis-information dis-information diversion of what calls itself “the news.” A young woman stands in the surf, holding close her child (who like all normal children is curious, active, and wriggling) as a flock of gulls takes flight in her midst. It’s a mysterious moment, a fanciful one, and it is a reminder to us that life is precious and beautiful indeed, and it is a gift given to all humans on this earth, not just the powerful and parasitic few.
This life, this precious and beautiful life: we need this.
Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are
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This Woman Writes by Carolyn Henderson 