You may recall a wonderful little tidbit from psychology called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If not, it’s the basic concept that people’s motivations and needs are instinctively prioritized, from the most basic to the most complex. It places things such as breathing and eating before friendship and family, etc. Here’s a pyramid diagram that sums it up:

Thank you WikiPedia, O Great Wellspring of Knowledge for your graphic.

It’s interesting that sex is included in the basic Physiological needs. Note, however, that sexual intimacy is on the third tier.

So I was pondering this concept on Christmas day, trying to put into perspective my rather mundane and depressing holiday season. I thought about all the children with their new iPods and gaming consoles, toddlers with colorful rings that squeak, newlyweds with jewelry that sparkles when the light hits it just right . . . And then I turned my mind to the thousands that died that day from starvation, political prisoners being tortured for the sake of torture, the virtual caste system that results from a free-market economy . . .

I thought about how surreal all of this is. And how unfair it is. And again, how surreal it is.

And then I thought about how small our planet is in the vast expanse known as the universe, and beyond the universe, and all of existence; I am tiny compared to my house, compared to my state, to my world, and then to that universe. 

And then even the thousands that died of hunger are nothing when compared to all of existence.

And then suddenly I turned my mind’s eye away from the subject of my thought and to the act of thinking itself, and realized I was suspended in that top blue tier of the pyramid. How depressing is it that I’m depressed about things within the blue pyramid? How selfish is it that I am lonely or desperate for validation or looking for meaning while others have no food or shelter.

During the holidays, homeless shelters are overwhelmed with people wanting to help feed those in need. Is this evidence of a collective guilt in which I share? Is it only called to mind during these holiday moments where excess is the norm; the other ten months of the year, most shelters struggle to find the funding and volunteers they need to stay in operation.

When people ask me why I’m feeling depressed, sometimes I have an easy answer. Sometimes I can say “I’m lonely,” or “My friend hurt my feelings.” Most of the time, though, I say “I don’t know” even though I do. I say so because saying what’s really on my mind would seem so obtuse or dramatic or disingenuous. Can I really say “I hate how capitalism defines people according to net worth” or “I am sad that people eat fast food and don’t care about animal welfare” or “Life is too difficult when you’re smart.”

Even after putting things into a perspective and calling to mind the millions of humans that will live lives of complete despair, poverty, injustice, and pain both physical an emotional, I still want. I still want Tivo. I still pay for a cellphone. I still spend twenty dollars on a meal when I could have spent ten. Or five. Or gone without eating for a day to help someone eat for a week. And this behavior is ingrained, it’s almost innate. It’s not that I choose the wrong path, but that I so often fail to even glimpse another.

How, then, can there be any hope for my salvation?

That question goes in the blue part of the pyramid.

That’s where I live.

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