The Little Conveniences

Once again, while I’m making plans for how to be creative, and thinking of blogs to write, Spirit intervenes and says, “Here, deal with this!”, and provides the one thing you never want to have happen in the middle of an Arizona summer:  the air conditioning quit, and I was left in the heat for a couple of days with nothing but fans to cool me off, and wishing for an adobe house which is naturally cooler to start off with.

It gave me a lot of time to think, though, since it was too hot to turn on my computer.  I started to think about how much we as a society have become dependent on things, on stuff.  Many, many times I have heard someone say, “I can’t live without my…”, or “I have to have…”, and they are always referring to something like a phone, junk food, televisions, air conditioning, etc.  Every time I stop and think, “what would you do if  — wasn’t available, or even possible?”  It doesn’t matter what “it” is, “it” is always a convenience.

We need very few things in life.  We need food.  We need air.  We need shelter.  We, as humans, have not always had electricity, or phones, tvs,  or air conditioning.  These are modern conveniences.  They are not going to feed us, allow us to breathe, or shelter us.  They are not basic requirements.  Nor are they necessities.  We can live without them.  It is not going to kill us if we don’t have them.  While I am grateful for my phone, and my computer, etc. I do not need them to live.

So today, now that my house is cool, and I know that I do not require it to live, I am very grateful for the convenience of having my air conditioner working again.  It makes living in the desert without an adobe house much more bearable.