Post holiday consumer reflections

What we want versus what we need

I remember back in December when the youngest kid watches a pre-holiday toy commercial and announces that she knows that it is a want, not a need that the manufacturer is selling to people. Curious, I ask her how she knows this. Kid says that in school, they are getting her class to define their wants and needs and categorize them into charts, pictures and lists. Impressive.

When I was kid’s age, I thought everything was a need because well, I wanted it. Maturity and a kid later, I realize that I have very few wants and some really clear needs. Clean laundry, fresh water to wash it in, warm socks, hugs from all whom I love and whom love me. I could ponder additions to that list if I wanted to but I don’t need to, at this point anyway.

What freedom I find when I’m not clinging to people, places or things that I used to want to, nay, needed to find solace in regularly. Exceptions include kid, husband, dogs, family, friends, people who look like they may need a hug or a smile. Let’s define that last list as compassion in action rather than a need or want to cling to those things. That list clarification thing I just wrote would be what I’d want to do rather than need to do, mind you.

I find that the holidays are a make or break time for retailers and manufacturers financially. They need to push and create needs out of supposed wants or vice versa to try and capture our attention among the several thousand media messages a week on average that we receive in North America. Not blaming sellers but asking that we as intelligent consumers, like kid, make our own list for 2010 that defines what we need versus what want. Peace is an outcome of clarifying what we want versus what we need. And what a blessed outcome it is. Here’s to my need, not just want, to wish you peace and clarity all the year and new decade through and beyond.