Sadly, but conveniently, I look around and know that most of what I have & use can be categorized as luxury. I've lost the ability to rationalize those items as necessary for the raising & education of kids...they're out of the house. Even when they were here, I found that most of what I had, most of what I bought was unnecessary. The easiest place to look in comparison was at my parents & what they required to raise 7 kids...very little actually. Necessities were defined as what was necessary, and not as what was available, not as what others had, not as the newest, latest or greatest to replace yesterday's newest, latest & greatest. We are a "I want" society. We, for the most part, do not understand what "I need" truly means. We, for the most & lucky part, don't have a need to understand the concept of need. Conspicuous consumption is our norm, unapologetically...mostly because we don't understand...or really care unless some luxury deprivation inconveniences us. And even then, we don't get it. We whine and move on to something else we don't need but which sooths our need to have things we don't need.
Ahhhhhh....ain't we spoiled....
