Sinking

Birthday's are suppose to be and are celebrate as special events. Sadly they are anything but. A birthday is shared by approximately 18.5 million other people (and getting larger). You have a better chance to win the lotto jackpot than to feel special on a birthday. That brings me to today. Life doesn't stop when you ask it to. It doesn't take into account whether you are ready. It just is.
So was this :


I realize the petty venting, especially in these troubling times. On the scale of things that could go wrong, this is pretty low. It's high on the annoyance scale, but pretty low on the 'real problem" scale. Still, it feels good to vent. Sadly there are some casualties :



Thankfully not much else was damaged (except a rug) and there were some survivors as well :

Click here for all the pics.

Maybe the Buddhists have it right all along. Maybe things just weigh you down. True freedom (physical) is being able to have as much stuff as you can carry and no more. There is a certain freedom in knowing & letting go of something. Things don't make you happier over time. It's mostly an instant gratification. Over the course of time, the thing's value may decline or stop all together. At the very least you must provide the item with a place of storage (in some case more, i.e. electricity, fuel, etc.) as well. If you don't want the object or you forget about it, it still requires that space. You then have to face getting rid of it. Dumping it into the trash only has emotional pain. While giving is less painful than dumping (because there is a better chance you will see it again), it still involves emotional loss. The last option is to sell it. Now that involves the variables of finding a seller, convincing that person to buy it for the price you negotiate in a mini-game called bartering, getting something in return and dealing with emotional loss. Getting a second party involves is always more complicated. Now think if you only had what you "needed" or could carry on your person. You wouldn't need a large apartment, big closets and a bunch of other things we've been programmed to accept as needed.



Maslow's hierarchy of needs is pretty basic for survival : breath (automatic), eat, drink water, sleep (usually automatic, though you have to find a safe place to do that), homeostasis (automatic) and shit. He also has sex on there, but you don't "need" sex. It is a biological urge, but so are a lot of other things that we have learned to control. Nobody wants to just survive. People want to thrive. There are other levels on the hierarchy to fulfill but nowhere on that list is "buying" or "getting" stuff part of that equation. We need to fight the need for stuff. This is unlikely to change and people will become slaves to their possessions. Thankfully this all ends by 2012, so we don't really have to worry about it. Right??