AJHull wrote:
Maybe that regional salesperson has a passion for wood carving and is pleased at how well he has excelled at that. I once thought the world revolved around triathlon. I was obsessed with it. I did my last triathlon in about 1993 and have never had an interest in competing again. I have an interest in seeing who is winning races, but that's it. It does not take long to begin to realize that it is only swimming, biking and running. There are endless passions out there and life is short.I think the main point that Dirtymangoes made was that almost everything we do falls into the category of "wants". Almost nothing that is done in western society falls in the true category of needs. Thus doing triathon/IM or lifting weights or shoveling the driveway to perfection, or the trip to Disney or Cuba, or getting the PhD dissertation done...all of these are wants. You truly don't need any of them.
On Monday I was at Ottawa airport and was fortunate enough (by coincidence of timing) to greet a family from Syria coming here. All they had was mom and dad, three kids and three suitcases and big smiles on their faces. All they needed was food, shelter, love and safety. They were the happiest people in the airport. I hope "we" (collectively) can help them in their new life, but at that moment, they had everything they needed. Now they will have challenges adjusting to a new society and the challenges that presents and will miss home intensely, but they will quickly move past needs to wants and their wants will be different than ours. My dad's wants as an immigrant 51 years ago was just to keep his job and build a life so his kids had opportunities. My sister and I literally never lived a day where we had to worry about basic needs. I am certain that my dad views me "squandering time doing triathlon" rather than going higher up the corporate food chain with all the energy as a wasted opportunity to do things in the world that immigrant parents tend to value....but going up the corporate food chain, or trying to Kona qual, or "wasting time" coaching kids in sport.....none of these are needs. They are luxuries of living in an advanced society.