Monday, January 26, 2009

Pondering...

Have you noticed it too?

People today are mean. You see on the news how someone has just snapped and gone "postal" (my appologies to any postal workers out there), the road ragers and others. But I'm mostly concerned with down and out meaness just because.

I totally get that sometimes you have a bad day. We all have a bad day now and then. But since when did it become okay to take that bad day out on anyone?

I think the problem all comes down to stress. Stress triggers the fight of flight response and now days most of us are more apt to fight than flight.

And why are we so stressed? I think it's due to stuff! We've been taught that we "need" all this stuff and we're stressing ourselves out to get the stuff. We're maxing out our credit and taking out even more credit to get the stuff...RUINING our economy and then making our government bail out the credit agencies, who were just hoping to make a few bucks off of us, but instead loaned out way too much money for us to ever even hope of paying them back!

I'm trying to figure out an answer! I don't think the politicians have the answer...and I certainly don't think it's the government's job to make us happy.

What do we truely NEED?

Well we need a house or form of shelter. But we don't need a 5 million dollar house with 8 bedrooms & 9 bathrooms that is sitting empty down the road from my house...and apparently most others around me know they don't need it either since it's been empty since it was built.

We need clothing. But we don't need to pay extra for designer labels or for the latest fashions. If it still fits and hasn't worn out (note the built for the dump part of the Story of Stuff) then keep it and wear it. ya know, you shouldn't be worried about what others are thinking of you cuz most of the time they aren't...that only happens in high school.

We need utilities to make our house work. We don't need some super cable of satelite service to get us channels from outer space. Do we really need to be available to talk on the phone any time of the day? I don't think so.

We need transportation to get to our job to pay for our other needs. And nope it doesn't have to be a brand new super luxury car.

Oh we need food. I think other than going to a fancy restaurant or going out to eat a lot that no one is really overspending on food. At least I hope so.

I'm pretty sure that everything else is just a want. And you can put off or save up for a want. Did you know that 9 times out of 10 if you put off a want long enough you'll realize that you don't want it anymore for some reason or another. I've only found one item that I've wanted for a really long time, that I still want. It's the bedroom set that DH & I picked out when we were first married. We don't need it. But we would really like to have it...so maybe one day.

I wonder if we all could choose to just go after our needs instead of this endless pursuit of wants if we could be happy and less mean?

4 comments:

  1. You know what I want? I want google to not eat my carefully-phrased response.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree, I think all this stuff causes a lot of problems - it just fills a hole that's not really meant to be filled with stuff, it's meant to be filled with emotional happiness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Got this via e-mail, thought it was an appropriate response. I think people are mean because God has left the building - and those who know Him don't share Him with their friends.

    "Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

    In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

    Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

    Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

    Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. "

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, that thing about putting off a want really is true.

    And I think we'd all be a little better off if everyone would just start employing Frank Costanza's "Serenity Now!" method of relaxation. At least for a little while.

    ReplyDelete