DAY 24 – BASIC REQUIREMENT: PERSONAL WANTS

It is my one hundredth birthday and I am filling in my birthday wish in a notebook. For the last ninety five years this notebook has a list of every birthday wish I have wanted.

One of the greatest things about being a young child is waiting for your birthday or a holiday and knowing you will be getting presents. Hoping that what you want will be given to you fills the days before and that morning with anticipation for what is to come. When the time finally arrives and you actually get what you want it makes that moment thrilling and exciting.

Children may be more prone to becoming excited over their personal wants but adults enjoy having and doing certain things as well. What each of us likes to have and do helps define a person in a way that other aspects in life do not. It creates the gratifying moments that are different from the joy we experience with the work we do and the people we are emotionally attached to. It adds to the totality of an individual human being and when we put everything together (types of music, tv shows, sports, games, cars, books, places visited, events attended and any other interests) it becomes obvious that every single person who has ever lived is a unique and distinct human being.

How and why a person finds an interest and attachment to certain things and not to others may not be fully understood. A person can be exposed to one thing and never lets go of it while being exposed to something else never takes hold. We do not have to know why this occurs but we should understand that personal wants are an important part of everyone’s life.

After filling in my one hundredth birthday wish I now realize that what I have gravitated towards during the course of my life has been personally rewarding and has enhanced my life. My wants along with the people I love and care about and the work I do makes me a unique human being.