He gets me, he gets the need

I was raised in a middle class family. We didn't have fifteen cars or anything but I never wanted for anything. Even more importantly, I also did not want for a home, a family, and so forth. That is, we were operating at a pretty high level on Maslow's hierarchy. So it was shocking to discover the absolute need that exists right here in St. Louis. There is a segment of society that lives an existence reminiscent of that which I observed in Central America, doing missionary work with my parents.

This brings me to Christmas - besides my two front teeth, I don't really want anything. Actually, that's not true. There's always lots of wants. But there are few needs indeed.

Brian and I have been having this discussion about what I want. I happen to need socks, so I asked for those. Not that I can't provide them for myself, but at least they're a need, not a want. Well, I still got movie and theatre tickets from Brian this season (after a need, the next best thing in my opinion is an experience, and he got movie coupons and awesome tickets at the Fox) but we opened my Christmas presents tonite. Yes, we're early, but a) I'm not keen on surprises, b) I sometimes eat my dessert first, and c) Christmas is going to be chaotic enough trying to coordinate our families' schedules, so at least we got a few moments to celebrate on our own tonite (in the same spirit, we're also going to have our own Christmas Eve lunch together).

The first thing I got from Brian was a certificate for three socks that could be doubled one (1) time for one (1) kiss. I promptly exercised that option. The next thing I got was the first gift Brian's given me that made me cry: A flock of geese. Now, living in the city with two big dogs would make it challenging to raise a bunch of geese. So he arranged to have an international charity organization find a good family to place my geese in. There, they will be adopted, raised, and -- harboring no illusions here -- probably eaten after hopefully having had baby geese to continue the process. The price to them? They give one of the chicks to another family. The organization is called Heifer International. One of the things I liked best was finding out that they have some 70 active projects in the United States, something that is near and dear to my heart, as I know I do not need to cross an ocean to find true and desperate need (I don't need to walk more than five to ten minutes in any given direction from my house to find it).

He got it. He got me, and he got what I was saying about the need (not that he had never heard of need before, just that he heard what I was saying about it, and what the topic as a whole means to me). He listened. He paid attention. He researched something in keeping with what I was saying. He acted on it. I must have done something right in a past lifetime - I had the privilege of studying when I wanted to study and of studying what I wanted to study, I'm working in the work that I want to do, I'm loving the man I want to love, I'm living the life that I want to live. I rarely experience true need of my own, and continue on my journey to unlearning my wants. What more could I possibly want? I don't - I'm good. Sawl good. Merry Christmas, and any other holiday that you celebrate.