Friday, January 5, 2007

The Illusion of Need

Is Need an illusion? How much do you really need what you have?

I just found out from my mother that as a baby, I was diagnosed as possibly having "celiac" (sometimes spelled coeliac) disorder, which is like an allergic reaction to proteins in cereals and wheat products.

I was never supposed to eat any wheat products because they caused irritation and damage to the small intestine. So I recently stopped eating bread and processed wheat products; that means no cookies, crackers, pretzels, pizza, cake, cereal, etc.

What does this have to do with the illusion of need? The key to discovering what you really need is in self-deprivation. You can see reality when you find yourself deprived of things possessed by other people. Then you begin to rationalize your position by thinking that you don’t need those things, and finally, through research, you discover that you really never needed them.

I began to wonder why I ate bread in the first place. Then I began to wonder why I ate anything that was processed or even cooked. I've been on a semi-vegetarian diet for a while and I began to realize that I don't even use a microwave oven anymore, and I can get a couple of day's worth of meals for myself for less than five dollars at Aldi's.

My first three weeks adjusting to raw vegetables were difficult and it would have been alot easier had I known that all my life I should not have been eating bread. I never felt better in my whole life now that I'm off the bread. I can’t believe how much money I save too.

Do you hate vegetables? Why do you hate vegetables? Nobody told you they were bad for you, but you know that kids hate vegetables. How did you learn that? From someone else’s behavior, perhaps from watching someone’s behavior towards vegetables on television?

The illusion is the assumption that we need something we really don’t need. Like restaurants.

What would we do without restaurants? Would we completely lose our social network? What else is there to do besides go to church? Go to a restaurant? Maybe that explains why western civilization has an obesity crisis; because we are so easily persuaded.

Did you meet your best friends at TGI Friday’s? It would seem that TGI Friday’s is the place to go to meet people, at least that’s what they show in some of their commercials. When was the last time you got up from your table at a restaurant and decided to make friends with a total stranger? Do you know anyone who did?

How about that car stereo with the giant sub-woofers in the trunk? Did it become the magic friend-making box you dreamed it would?

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