Need

"Need" is a funny thing, not easy to untangle.

I have "needs", the basic ones are obvious. If I imagine a kind a spectrum of needs, the basics would be at one end. As I move across that, the degree of need, the "how much I really need that" factor, decreases. So at the opposite end are a lot of material things and some of the things that are possible ethereal.

It's that area just after basics that hard to untangle. If I say I "need" something - whether a thing or some other aspect of living a life - it's not always apparent to me how to "get" that need met. if part of that particular need (assuming it is not material) is unmet, to what extent is my life somehow impoverished, made worse, or more difficult? Does that suggest, then, that what I have on that list of not-so-basic-but-certainly-not-required needs is not to be achieved?

Some examples might help.