Having More or Simply Being

“We humans are more concerned with having than with being.”- Professor Norman (character in the movie Lucy)

Stuff. Americans like stuff. We like new stuff, we like shiny stuff. We like old stuff, we like expensive stuff. We like stuff our neighbors don’t have, we like stuff you can’t get in the stores. We like to wear stuff, we like to drive stuff. We like to buy stuff, we like to sale stuff.

Stuff makes us feel secure. Stuff makes us feel important. Stuff sets us apart from our friends. Stuff validates our existence. Stuff keeps score (“He who dies with the most toys wins”). Do you get it? We like our stuff.

I’m not preaching. Hell, I like my stuff like any other red-blooded American male does. I have more drills than I can drill with. More screw drivers than I can screw with. I’ve got enough hacksaws, chop saws, table saws, handsaws, circular saws, jigsaws and chainsaws to deforest the state of Montana. But guess what, if I died, right now before I finished writing this sentence all that “shit” wouldn’t mean a thing…..nothing. It’s not going with me wherever going is.

Can we “be” without a lake house, or a new car or the newest iPhone SE “the most powerful 4‑inch phone ever! The result is an iPhone that looks small. But lives large.” Can we live large without all the other stuff? As I see it, “being” for most of us, has become a mythical place, a place our parents or grandparents were forced to live-in rather than accept. They played with rocks and sticks, created games with dirt clods, had one dress and one pair of shoes because they had too, not because they wanted too.

You can’t buy “being”. There won’t be advertisement for it during the Super Bowl and you won’t get a coupon in the mail. But I know it resides in each one of us. It resides as a simple seed waiting for the acknowledgement and awareness that this is a gift, this moment, this life, is enough. The formula for what we need is really very simple and it is right in front of each of us. I am looking for mine, I hope you will find and share yours.