Oldie but a goodie...

Had to pull my favourite post from myspace to here. Funny, reading old ones, reminiscing over old dramas. Case in point: The entry of the "You're fucking kidding me, I have to go see the fucking Nutcracker with my grandmother in an hour" day. Anyone? Anyone? I should bring that back, and post the photo of me at the Nutcracker, frizzy hair, puffy eyes, half hammed from chugging wine at the bar. Good times. Anyway, here's one from waaaaaay back.

The order of needs

My friend Paul's blog got me to thinking. I don't know how to link to blogs, but check out Paul, in My Friends for his chewy words. He was talking about how people need to feel secure before they can start thinking about peace.

This immediately snapped my mind back to one of my favourite theories: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which basically states that humans have an ordered level of needs, and it is only when the current need is met that one can move on to the next need/level. They start out with physiological needs: food, water, air, move to security and safety, then love, then esteem, and finally actualization, although few get there. I love this shit. When I was in my early 20s and completely broke I gave everyone a Christmas present that I had made with my hands, and let's be clear here that I am not an artist. My dad got a painting of triangles floating on a green background with an explanation on Maslow's theory and instructions to stop worrying. It is now framed in his office (wiping tear). What I get out of this theory is not only a cool insight on our workings, but the realization that no matter what, no matter where we are in the world or in this hierarchy, we're going to be worried. We're going to be needy, possibly obsessed, maybe willing to just do about anything to achieve our current need, and if we do achieve it, we just replace that need with something else. Kind of a relief to realize, no?
I also love finding similar ideas in other thinkings. Such as Christianity in Paul's blog, and recently in learning more about the chakras learned that it was quite similar. Listen to the order of the chakras from bottom to top:

1. Muladhara - security,
2. Swadhisthana - sexuality
3. Manipura - energy
4. Anahata - love
5. Vishuddha - communication
6. Ajna - intuition
7. Sahasrara - consciousness

Similarly there is the idea here that you move upwards, from earth-bound concepts to more "human" ones.

So then today I was wondering why so many of us are depressed. By "we" I'm referring generally to the western world, possibly middle class and up. I'm a big fan of evolution, and like to think that such a large portion of our species existing is such a miserable state naturally just wouldn't have survived the process. Of course we're living longer now, but a lot of people are getting depressed in their reproductive prime, and it just doesn't make sense. There has to be an environmental reason. Or there's always that lingering doubt that something just ain't right. Some important facet of our existence is just off. Something major and basic. And then it occurred to me: we're skipping the first step. Sure we go to work and get money that buys our food, shelter, clothing, etc., but technically we are quite distanced from those needs, we are not directly involved in their acquisition. Could this be it? Are there as many depressed people among groups who grow their own food, build their homes, sew their own clothes? The fact alone that we do so little physical activity during our day-to-day that many are required to go to a building and pay money to run, push, pull and lift, is kind of indicative of something, and actually a bit embarrassing. Thoughts?