Perspective

I was thinking about writing about this yesterday and filed the idea away in my brain so here it is ... I got up pretty early on Tuesday and was getting ready to settle into my daily routine of reading the Bible & writing in my journal when my mom calls me to let me know that she & dad are on the way to my apartment and they wanna have breakfast together.

Anyways, to cut a long story short ... I was having breakfast with my mom & dad at the market when this little Standard 2 boy walks up to us to sell nasi lemak. My parents have bought nasi lemak from him before many times and as I observed this exchange a thought struck me that us young adults can be very selfishly stuck in our own wants, desires & petty problems. Here I have in front of me a very young boy going from table to table, person to person to help his parents make ends meet. Sigh ... It's all about lifestyle really ... all of us are caught in a trap where we want to look good, have the latest things ... have luxuries. I know I'm caught ... I have an expensive hobby in comic books, video games & movies and when it comes to food, gosh I find it hard to resist a nice meal at Chilli's or some other eatery that has a price tag of at least RM10 above for a bite to eat.

What really is need & what really is want? A lot of the things in my life are wants rather than needs. A real need is to have food on the table & clothes on our back. A need is having electricity & running water. A need is having the means to get from point A to point B in whatever form of transport that we're using. A need is being loved. Wants are all those shiny new things that eventually we get tired with. How do we stay contented? The answer to that eludes me right now and I'm still trying my best to be more sensible with my money. After spending the whole of 2007 going crazy on purchases I'm in a better place now although I still have to clear things off with my mom for my lack of self-control.

That little boy gave me a sense of perspective. Are we looking around us to get a little perspective or are we all stuck with our eyes fixed on our own problems & selfish desires? Just some food for thought. I've been telling myself that I need to order my life more and also work on keeping those expensive purchases in check. This is my wishlist of stuff for this year.

Number 1
A pair of Levi's jeans. The one pair I have now just doesn't cut it. Actually any other pair of comfortable jeans would do ... it's just that I don't know any other brand other than Levi's that are actually very comfy. You do pay for what you get I suppose.

Number 2
A couple of new shirts. I don't really buy clothes for some reason. Heh heh!

Number 3
Some ties ... Again ... the reason why I'll have to pick some up is cos' I don't have any nice ties at all! Ha ha!

Number 4 (the FUN stuff - clothes aren't FUN!)
Video games of course! In alphabetical order:

Fallout 3 (PS3)

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots (PS3)

Resident Evil 5 (PS3)

Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Nintendo Wii)

As you can see the list of things to buy never really ends. But I think I shall keep it to these few items this year and these will really cost a bomb. At the end of the day I guess I really want to be wise with what little I have. I do realise that money & material possessions aren't everything and so these items will remain as wants rather than needs. It's really hard right now cos' I know I want a nice lifestyle as much as the guy next door and perhaps God is teaching me to simplify the way I live. I always figured myself to be an anything goes kinda person but that's increasingly becoming not true.

I guess by putting down all those things above I hope to really keep my frivolous purchases to a set of items this year and learn how to save for them or work a freelance job or two extra to afford them. After all I do get my reality escape fixes at the movies already don't I? No more comic books this year I guess ...

Perspective & contentment. These are 2 good principles to live by don't you think?