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On the Word “WANT”
On days when there are no submarines appearing in the channel, no whales giving birth to calves, and no large pods of dolphins or ancient sea turtles to keep me focused on the here and now, my mind often wonders to things that have either always enthralled or always bothered me. On one recent day, after completing my daily afloat rosary, I thought of something that has always attracted my ire: the incessant use of the word “want” by children and even some adults. If I could, I would totally ban that word from our language. When I mentioned that desire recently to a friend, he defended the use of the word in circumstances where someone would say something like: “I want to help you,” or “I want to be a good person.” The use of “want” in such contexts, I told him is unnecessary, i.e., if one wants to be good, he need only be good. If someone wants to help me, he need only get to work helping me. The meaning of the word “want,” to which I object, includes a perceived need, a craving, a demand, or desire for something – usually something not really needed, or something to which the petitioner is not entitled, or has not earned. Wanting is something that comes naturally to everyone, but most of us learn to stop wanting “things” once we come to realize the unimportance of most “things.”
None of this is to say or imply that we should not always be trying to better ourselves, and our lives, but at some point it is important to realize that “things” do not really make us happy, and can often tend to make our lives worse, rather than better, after acquiring them. All “things” are temporal and at some point in our lives (the earlier the better) we should be concerning ourselves with the eternal rather than the temporal. One of the most important lessons given us by Samuel Johnson in Rasselas came from the mouth of Princess Nekayah near the end of the book after she, along with Rasselas and their tutor, Imlac, had traveled the world in an unsuccessful search for the "Choice of Life" that would bring true happiness: "To me," said the Princess, "the choice of life is become less important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity."
(On such things does one ruminate while paddling a one-person kayak miles out in the ocean - closer to God.)
