Word Play 11: Needs, Wants & Weight. Heavy...

Heavy... That's what a colleague and his wife remarked, observing all the barang I was lugging on my back, when I happened to meet them on the way to work this morning. I then joked that these "burdens" are nothing, as they are mere objects. It was the human baggage of relationships and emotions that strained me, causing me to protest in agony every now and then. I then made a snide joke, saying that if I threw my bags onto the floor, the items in it would at most be spoilt, but at least they would never retaliate. Now try moving my boss emotionally around like a bag, and even the slightest bruise on this Kate Spade would bring about unimaginable dire consequences... :p

Here I'll like to go into the concept of importance, aka "weight", while bringing in the concepts of needs and wants. Let's us examine the three below from dictionary.com.

Importance [noun] - great significance, mattering much, entitlement to more than ordinary consideration or notice, prominence, considerable influence or authority

Need [noun] - a requirement, necessary duty, or obligation; a lack of something wanted or deemed necessary; urgent want, as of something requisite; necessity arising from the circumstances of a situation or case; a situation or time of difficulty, exigency

Want [noun] - something wanted or needed, necessity; something desired, demanded, or required; absence or deficiency of something desirable or requisite, lack

The difference between needs and wants is a very fine line, indicated by urgency and necessity. When the want is something required for survival, it'll definitely fall into the needs category. Think of them as two overlapping circles in a Venn diagram. Simply put, some needs and wants are mutually inclusive, others are not.

Another colleague was just musing to me the other day that she was unable to grasp why the environment in our workplace operated in the way it did as a whole. I then postulated that the issue was rooted not so much in the difference between needs and wants, but what we define as "needs" and "wants", The method our workplace being more in accordance to the needs and wants of those with greater authority. The subjectivity of the issue lies with how each individual defines needs and wants, as they are often decided by the importance we place on them. Let me elaborate it using an example.

One person may value getting the latest Samantha Thavasa very much, while the slightest gravy stain on my Crumpler bag when eating mixed veg rice will cause me huge distress. In the market place, the absolute value of the Samantha Thavasa will far surpass that of the Crumpler, though in my private opinion, that may not even be the case, as it does not matter to me, namely meaning it is of not much importance to me. However, just because I view the Samantha Thavasa of lesser weight, does not necessarily invalidate its worth. Too bad that in real life, sometimes we do not always operate so objectively.

Things of importance are both good and bad, depending on the context. Without weight we'd all be floating around astronaut style. Though it may be an amusing novelty at first, try peeing without any gravity. However, too much weight will burden us and make us tired, draining us of our energy eventually. Just ask that famous maid carrying the backpack for the NS army boy...

Some bags, I've learnt to discard from my life along the way. Other bags, I cling onto them for dear life, like how cowardly I behaved when travelling on my first lone ranger trip to Hong Kong in March last year. Since then, many events have happened, leading me to throw away some wants, while persisting to clutch tightly some other things and ideals which I view as needs. These "Crumplers" of mine are what keeps me grounded daily, while yet being not too heavy such that I drag my feet to work every morning and home every evening. :)