anyone up for a game of dictionary?
sometimes i like to start tossing a word or words around, and see what happens. currently among my list are
need and want.
there appears to be many different ways to define those two words and distinguish them from one another. i am particularly drawn to the skill of discernment between these two words when setting intentions and extending invitations. any insight?
how do you communicate the difference between wanting and needing efficiently? (or not so efficiently!!)
many thanks,
ashley
comments:
I tend to seperate them by needing is essential to my life. Wanting is a added bonus if I get it. But I abuse and misuse these two all the time. I need a job but I want to play, but now playing is also essential to my life so hum???
I have stumped myself
Melissa | Email | 03.25.04 – 5:43 pm | #
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i think needs are wants that we’ve let thicken and harden. justification and calcification of desire. wants are more fluid. and fickle. in the end, i think, nothing is necessary. and anything is possible.
michael herman | Email | Homepage | 03.25.04 – 6:30 pm | #
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I’m with needs being essential to life and wants being bonus stuff. There’s also a gray area in there.
I need to eat to live. At this particular moment, I don’t need to eat, but I want to eat. Same can be said for play. Play is essential for health. It’s important. However, it’s not urgent. It can be put off almost indefinitely. The self will slowly start to suffer, but we may not notice until we’re pretty far gone.
Perhaps it could be said that a non-urgent need becomes a desire when we give it more urgency than it warrants.
But, we can also trip ourselves up in the other direction. We can give urgency to unimportant needs or desires, hedonistic pleasures. Or, we give urgency to the avoidance of discomfort, even if the discomfort is performing an important task. This, I think, is the link between attachment to pleasure and procrastination. Something I’m all too often guilty of.
Dave | 03.25.04 – 10:33 pm | #
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…need to eat only to live as this body. needs seem to thicken and solidify in same way body does. i’m wondering what happens right after death, if mind keeps going and body doesn’t… are we just awash in our desires without the thicker, heavier, solidity of needs to anchor us?
michael herman | Email | Homepage | 03.26.04 – 3:37 am | #
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oooh… this is good! thanks melissa, dave, and michael. do you mind if i play cut-and-paste with your words? okay!
playing is essential to life
Play is essential for health.
I have stumped myself
…are we just awash in our desires without the thicker, heavier, solidity of needs to anchor us?
anything is possible.
ashley | Email | Homepage | 03.26.04 – 10:53 am | #
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and everything is play.
michael herman | Email | Homepage | 03.26.04 – 11:51 am | #