Saturday, October 20, 2007

What do we want?

It seems to me that there is a great abyss between what we think we want and what will actually satisfy us. We drool over everything from big screen tv's to the hottest new cars. Each purchase we think will finally be the one that puts us over the top. We will now at last find happiness. Unfortunately whatever happiness we find only lasts until we see a bigger tv or sexier car. We are caught in a trap of feeling poorer and poorer, even while we are surrounded by piles of stuff that we never use.

So, what do we want? I think what most people truly want is to know that their lives matter. If what we do today will make a difference tomorrow, then we can rest content tonight. What would our lives look like if we decided that we were going to make our decisions based on what is going to change the world? What if we decided that instead of a car that can travel at twice the posted speed limit, we would get that car that would go twice as far with the same amount of fuel. What if we decided that those people next door really were neighbours, and we started treating them as if they might be friends. What would happen if we allowed our lives to be driven, not by the stuff we own, but by the stuff we can give?

Just think about it.