“When we turn luxuries into necessities, we jeopardize our ability for contentedness” – Alistair Begg
All of you might have seen the movie “The Jungle Book”. In both the animated and the live-action remake of the movie, there is a song called ‘The Bare Necessities’, sung by the character Baloo. In the song, Baloo talks to Mowgli about the bare necessities, which according to him are honey, ants, and Mother Nature’s recipes (no surprise there). But, tell me: Can someone only live with Mother Nature’s recipes today?
I got the idea for this article after a power cut in our house in India. It was about 9 PM. Me, my cousins and my brother were watching TV, and my mother and my aunt were talking. Suddenly, the power went off. It was so sudden. We didn’t even bother flicking the candle. The first set of questions we asked each other were, “Do you have my phone?” and “Hey, how much percentage of charge is there in my phone?” and “Hey, my phone’s upstairs, can you go get it?” After all of us had our phones in our hands, then did we realize we had to flick a candle since there was no light.
No light, no fan, no AC, we should have been one step away from being a wild animal. But, we didn’t care. We got our phones, our headphones and listened to songs until 11 PM when the power came back. Then we realized it was 11 in the night. We packed up our stuff, went upstairs and slept. The next day, I imagined this night without a phone, and a shiver went through my spine.
If you ask any sane 21st century person ‘What are the necessities to survive?’ I’m pretty sure the answer will be ‘Phones, Wi-Fi, and TV’. Sure, modern gadgets have their own benefits. But as Alistair Begg said, we are taking this luxury as our necessity, and when this is taken from us, we lack contentedness.
The first phone in the world was a Motorola. Back then, it was considered a miracle to have phones. And television. “You have a TV?!” everyone asked, surprised. But now? “You don’t have a TV?” everyone asks, surprised. These have turned into our bare necessities today. One day without them, and we go savage. If something else is lost, “Ah, I’ll search for it later” we say. But if our phones are lost? We topple down all the cushions in the house, turn down all the shelves and waste an entire day trying to figure out where we put our phones. This was not what phones were invented for, but here we are anyway. Our noses two inches away from a glowing screen, 24/7/365.
To quote Baloo, “Don’t waste your time searching for something when you know you can live without it”. We can live without phones. We just need to learn how. Are you ready to?