Depression and Spiritual Growth

J. NEEDS, WANTS, AND SIMPLICITY

Most Americans live in a society of abundance and relative wealth: they have available adequate (even excess, given the high rate of obesity!) food; reasonable living quarters; adequate clothing and transportation. However, there is a huge inequity in the distribution of these assets. Some people (e.g. one William Gates) are literally incomprehensibly wealthy, while others live in slums, and have desperate lives of bare subsistence. I don't want to address the issue of poverty here: that would require another essay. Rather, I would like the middle-class Americans who read this essay, and have begun to think about the issues of the purpose and meaning of their lives, and about service and commitment to society, to go one step farther, and give thought to their needs, as opposed to their wants. Many people have never thought about the difference between the two categories, and therefore cannot discriminate them, even when it is essential to do so.

For the purpose of discussion, let's consider a "need" to be something a person literally must have in order to go on living. And let's regard a "want" as something a person might very much like to have, and even be willing to work very hard to get, but whose absence is not life-threatening. While I was in the hospital recovering from my 1997 auto accident, and rebuilding in the face of a failed medication for my chronic illness, I thought long and hard about these issues. The first thing to result from this process was a clear understanding of what I believe I really need, and that turns out to be remarkably simple. I concluded that all I need are: first and most important, good health, both physical and mental; then second, the opportunity (and ability!) to do my creative work, that is, the work I have been given to do.

Everything else falls into the category of being a "want". The most important of these is to be able to establish, and sustain, a loving relationship with a life-partner, with my (and her) children, with my friends, with my neighbors, and with those I serve by doing the work I do. Perhaps the next most important of my "wants" is the desire to learn much more theoretical physics; it fascinates me. Then come a large number of other items on the list that tend to blend together at about the same level of importance. Money, power, celebrity, an expensive car and house, "quality" material objects, simply fall off the bottom of the list. This is a highly individual choice!

Historically, Quakers have dealt with these issues within the framework of simplicity. An even greater emphasis of some of them have been given by the "plain people" who include the Shakers (a now-extinct sect, unrelated to Quakers), the Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, and the Brethren. These groups have, to a greater or lesser extent, "turned their back" to the "world". They avoid useless ornamentation and embellishment, yet produce both agricultural and manufactured products that are highly prized by the rest of society. Quakers often view our simplicity in the context of the dire needs in the rest of the world. One of our aphorisms is "Live simply, so that others may simply live." The more "extreme" sects find strength in their simplicity, and, seemingly paradoxically, freedom. Perhaps the best case yet made for simplicity comes in the form of the beautiful old Shaker song: Simple Gifts

`Tis a gift to be simple,
`Tis a gift to be free,
`Tis a gift to come down
Where we ought to be.
And when we are in
The place just right,
We shall live in the garden
Of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend
We shall not be ashamed.
To turn, and to turn,
Will be our delight,
`Till by turning, turning,
We come out right!

"To bow and to bend" refers to giving obedience to the Lord; to "turn" refers to following the Lord's path. In more Quakerly language, we would say that "bowing and bending" means the commitment to follow our Inner Light (a reflection of God's Light), and to "turn" means to go into the "openings" that appear before us on our journey. The discipline of simplicity allows people to find their integrity, and discern their character. These are valuable benefits not to be ignored!

next: Epilogue