January - March 2012



Bare Necessities


What is essential?

Relationships or possessions?

The lives we touch or the things we have?

It is clear for an infant:

Life is impossible without a caring hand.

Beyond infancy the story is immediately more complicated.

Identifying the bare necessities is a simpler task. Here is a list:

  • Food
  • Clothing
  • Shelter
  • Transportation
  • Health Care
  • Education
  • Employment

Anything beyond this is nice but not necessary for leading an independent and useful existence.

Do we in America have the financial, technological and productive capacity to provide the bare necessities for each of our citizens?

Of course we do.

But somehow we fail over and over again to get this job done.

How can that be?

Perhaps we should try looking at ourselves.

Consider all of the things that we have, we use, and we do that are not on the list of bare necessities.

Careful review will no doubt show what steps are needed.