The Parable of the Wanter

I’m not the kind of guy who gets all hung up on sin. Yes, I think that there are things that are right and wrong, but who am I to say anything to the good or bad about it? People who are a lot smarter, more eloquent, and a lot more motivated than I will ever be have been trying to get the world to fall under an umbrella of moral direction for centuries, and have only marginally succeeded. As far as the world has come, we can honestly say that most of us, some of the time, feel bad about war. That’s actually not to bad for a species of voracious omnivores with a biological predisposition to kill anything in its path.

But that’s not for me. I’m not really telling people to do anything good or bad. But there are a couple of things I want to touch on, and one of them has to do with want.

Want is an insidious disease that permeates the mind. There are either two things to do with want: fulfill it or stop wanting it. Keep in mind that want is different from need. There is no way I would expect someone to stop wanting to eat or be loved. What I’m talking about are these petty, day-to-day rambling, idle wants that stops people from reaching their full potential. And besides that, want is fleeting, and can often change depending on the circumstances.

One day, there was this guy. Let’s just call him… “Mike Desaulnier”. All day long, he would be unhappy because his want was unfulfilled. The source of that want was a friend of his, who wouldn’t update his blog. This friend, wise and caring as he was, decided to show “Mike” the error of his ways and how hollow his sense of want really is. So he stabbed him in the package with a sword. Not only did Mike immediately see that his idle want was fleeting, but he never said anything ever again. He was probably contemplating his new want in life… living for another five minutes, preferably with his junk intact.

Want is a useless, and even a dangerous thing to have. Want is really simple… if you want something, take it. If for some reason, you can’t have it, learn to stop wanting it. There are some people who will tell you that unrequited wants is a key component of the human condition.

Tell those people to talk to Mike.

~ by porterism on September 29, 2006.