necessary?

  It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Hard to disagree with that observation. I would add to that by saying, necessity sometimes becomes a hobby. That is what I am seeing these days. I say these days meaning in my lifetime so far. That thought came to me after having a short discussion about having a pantry. I'm talking about an old fashioned pantry like the one in your grandmothers house. The pantry itself was a necessity. A place to store the necessities! 

 My grandmother did have a large walk in pantry. There were cabinets along the base with shelving along the tops. An entire row of cabinets and shelves. When I was small I would venture into that pantry. At that time it was being used more for the storage of "junk" than necessities, you know the common clutter that accumulates in every household. But, my mother told me of the days when those shelves were lined with home canned provisions, sacks of flour and corn meal. Coffee, tea, sugar and vegetables, dried and fresh would abound. The pantry held the necessities of living. As I said by the time I came around it had fallen into disuse. Grandma bought her vegetables in a can and stored those cans in the kitchen cabinet. 

 It is that that caused me to think that necessities become hobbies. Is that the sign of progress? When you no longer have to work for your necessities you have achieved success? Today we don't have to make anything for ourselves, we can just buy whatever it is we want. The only work we have to do is to make money. That is what we occupy ourselves with, the making of money. We buy the necessities. But sometimes we make them and call it crafting, or a hobby. The necessity has become a hobby.

 In the town where I was raised there was an old saying. If you weren't doing anything of value, just passing the time, the old folks would say, you are just muxing around. As a kid I never questioned that, it is just what you said. A common, everyday expression. Years later I was reading a book. In this book it was explained that a mux was a small metal drill bit. Turns out a mux was a valuable tool to the native Americans living on the seashore. They used it to drill a hole through a certain portion of a clam shell. Then they could string it and they called that wampum! Yes, it was a sort of money among them. When the white guys saw the Indians making this stuff they thought they were just "muxing" around. The reality was, they were making money. It was a necessity. Today there are some that make that as a hobby. A curiosity. Of course, a curiosity that could be sold, for money. Like a hobby today. 

 Have we made money a necessity? We did invent that as a means of acquiring the things we need. I suspect man has been trading valuables since the very beginning. Gold, silver and gemstones are the most common things of universal value. They can all be traded for whatever it is that you want or need. It has always intrigued me that the object themselves are not necessities. I mean you can't eat them, they don't provide any medicinal benefits or shelter from the elements. Sure, they are pretty but what good are they? They can be traded. Trading a necessity for a want. Or is it trading a want for a necessity? And after having made enough money to satisfy your every want or need, wouldn't it be come a hobby, the making of more money I mean? It wouldn't be a necessity anymore. 

 Is the ultimate goal of man to have no one working for the necessities? Is that the utopian society? One in which no one has an obligation to produce anything at all? Those that choose to produce will freely give to those that choose not to contribute. Is the ultimate goal to make life, and the living of that life, nothing more than a hobby? All the necessities provided, at no charge to you. But the problem there is what about the things you want? Isn't that why man invented money in the first place? To get the things you want simply by exchange; it turns out you have to work for that too. It's a catch 22 for sure. 

 "The secret of happiness, you see is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." (Socrates)