Greed vs Need

Snow again. Pretty much Ditto my 1/2/14 post, except my socks are an itchy wool blend and I'm using my new shovel. Major winter storm, They say, which is fine with me as I plan to stay inside all day. As long as the power (furnace) doesn't go out, I'll be okay. Last night we brought firewood inside and stacked a pile outside the door. And I fully charged my smartphone, my kindle, my tablet, my iPod, my laptop (although its battery is dying), as well as my partner's smartphone, kindle, iPod, and two laptops. Bring it on!

Her two laptops? Yes, I admit that I broke down and bought her a new one yesterday. "It's so slow," she'd say. (not up to the performance of her work computer) "It doesn't work right," she'd say. (user error) "It won't download my email," she'd say. (Outlook - grrrr. I'm switching her to Yahoo mail. Still, she thinks it is the computer's fault.) I'm the computer *expert* in the family. I've tried explaining that the laptop's really not that bad. Pick your battles, I've learned. It's just easier to buy her a new one. Besides, these days,they are relatively inexpensive.

(For you geeks out there: my first computer was a 286 with a 40 MEGAbyte hard drive which, the salesman told me, was WAY more space than I would ever need. It came with DOS 4.01 - on 5 1/4 floppy disks and not installed. I unboxed it, turned it on... just the boot screen. I went back to the store and asked, "What the...?" The price? $2,000. Year? 1989.)

Oh how I love to buy a new computer. Or help someone else buy one (their $$). I like comparing the specs and researching the processors. Then I make my assessment of what the "user" actually needs (while salivating over the high-end laptops that I'll never buy). "This one," I pronounced, choosing for my partner a slightly more inferior machine than I'd buy for myself. Because really, all she does is Facebook (current obsession Candy Crusher), email, internet browsing and streaming videos from Amazon Prime. Obviously she doesn't need the 8-cylinder super machine that will power my little text files.

All of this brings me down to the question I must really consider: Do I/we really need all these electronics? All this stuff? Of course not. I want it. A greedy, self-serving want when, in the scheme of things, I Need so much more. Intangibles. Things that cost not even a farthing. A hug. A smile. Someone to love. The lovely comments I receive from my readers. (Validation, acceptance, appreciation.) These are the things that truly power a life. It's up to each one of us to search for that amazing "high-end" life.

We are not on this earth to accumulate victories, things, and experiences, but to be whittled and sandpapered until what’s left is who we truly are. -Arianna Huffington

You're amazing -