Parenthesis II: On the importance of needing
Whatever is, is in its Causes just
Since all Things are by Fate, but purblind Man
Sees but a part o’ th’ Chain, the nearest Link,
His Eyes not carrying to the equal Beam
That poises all above.Dryden
The above quote is the epigraph to A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain by Franklin and its also the answer I found to the importance of needing.
If we are in fact part of this whole huge Chain (or Clockwork if you will, Chain does sound too simple), that means one piece must fit in with the next, or with multiple nexts.
With that in mind, here’s what happened on Sunday. I’d been told that the exhibition Dialogue in the Dark was something amazing where you grew incredibly conscious of your lesser senses and extremely empathetic towards a minority like the blind. Well then, amazing turned out a dull word.
If you’re not familiar with the exhibition, this is what goes on in there: you head into a hallway where little by little you’re striped of any light or any visual aid and you’re basically led in the dark by a blind person for an hour. They tell you since the beginning that you’ll be best friends with the members of your group by the time you leave. Again, best friends doesn’t hit the spot.
I really wanted to stay longer in the dark and at the end I couldn’t pin-point what was making me feel like crying. While talking it over, I realized that what I’d experienced was a raw feeling of need. A need could be a liability, if you think of a child and his need for an adult or something you left undone because of the one requisite that was missing or even the remorse you feel from asking a favor knowing you’ll most likely be asked to pay it back. I don’t usually like to be dependable on something or someone. But on Sunday I experienced need as never before. Could it be Maslow meant this kind of need when in his Hierarchy of Needs he included belonging?
I felt virtuous that I needed, I felt I wanted to need. I completely felt as though needing is the door to compassion in the Tibetan sense of the word. And compassion on it’s side, the door to belonging to the whole.
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It has come to my attention that necessity and need don´t have the same meaning, hence the change in the title. Also I wanted to explain that difference as much as I am able and make clear that by quoting Franklin´s above mentioned dissertation, I was only referring to it´s epigraph to talk about my experience of needing.
Here´s quoting the dissertation again, this time to explain the meaning of the word necessity:
…it is a Liberty of the same Nature with the Fall of a heavy Body to the Ground; it has Liberty to fall, that is, it meets with nothing to hinder its Fall, but at the same Time it is necessitated to fall, and has no Power or Liberty to remain suspended.
Whereas necessity is pretty much an obligation. Need then, would be more of a choice, I´d even venture into saying it goes along the lines of a desire. Take the basic necessity of being nurtured vs. the need to eat. As in nurturing a starving child, be it with a saline solution or oatmeal, else he´ll die or eating meat because your local nutritionist says you´re lacking in animal protein, but then, it doesn´t mean you´re not well fed.
Having made a distinction, I´m not entirely sure whether I meant need or necessity above.
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- From the Liberty, Parenthesis drawer(s)