I awoke at 4:45am today and my head was full of thoughts - some of them were about character lines in my current book or potential future short stories, but mostly my brain was furiously attacking the issue of my current and protracted battle with the Czech government to renew my visa.  Apparently, I don’t have enough documented income to survive here for a variety of ‘technical’ reasons that I find amusing and stupid.  I survive just fine here.  I pay my bills and have a good and happy life.  Whatever, the battle rages on...but everything in life is fodder for a writer and my personal residency struggle got me thinking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. 

Remember that pyramid your teacher probably first showed you in Science or Social Studies class when you were in eighth grade?  It summarizes the component layers of ‘need’ in human existence, starting at the bottom with basics such as ‘food, clothing & shelter’ and moving to “I’m the King of the World” style self-actualization at the top level.  Rah.  I’ve included a sample image here - take a moment to look it over and particularly enjoy that the author of this chart as inserted ‘sex’ as a basic need, hee hee.  But let’s not get sidetracked...this chart seems to say that once we have basics (such as sex - sorry, I just couldn’t resist), we require/pursue security , then love & belonging , then self-esteem , then self-actualization .  In essence, we cannot be happy people unless we have all the building blocks to allow us to find ‘meaning’ in life.  Uh, yeah.  I laughed to myself as I lay in bed, half-awake, thinking about this...don’t judge - I am a writer, which means I regularly lie in bed, half-conscious, laughing to myself as I think about stuff.

Anyway, I realized that I don’t know where I am on this chart and I’m completely happy with my life (with the exception of the visa thing, which I think falls under food/shelter or security).  But I think I’m a bit different from other people, often finding myself jumping from the airplane and yelling Jeronimo before I check to make sure I’m wearing a parachute. 

So what does Maslow offer for ‘normal’ people in life?  Think about this for a moment: if everyone were stuck at the food/shelter level, would there be wars, abuse of power, persecution of minorities, etc.?  Maybe you say ‘hell yeah - there were wars between cavemen, wars in the middle ages, and ruthless leaders all throughout history and before’.  But wait - the root of all conflict has always centered around leadership of some sort.  If everybody were solely focused on shelter and sex (let’s not forget sex!) then maybe there wouldn’t be so much gratuitous violence and persecution in the world. 

It seems like Maslow’s hierarchy is just a different way of identifying social inequity than common benchmarks such as financial or political power?  I mean, how many times have you seen a homeless guy in a subway preaching about the need to enforce democracy and equal rights in the Middle East or about whether Russia and Ukraine should be united?  You haven’t!  Because the homeless guy in the subway is only worried about his next meal and a safe place to sleep.  While I’m not saying that’s a favorable means of living, I quietly wonder if all the global powerbrokers had to live this way for a bit, whether they’d care less about subordinating populations and ‘establishing a legacy’?  For a little dark humor, just think about this - imagine Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and whoever is currently leading ISIS (the radical Islamic sect trying to kill its way to power in Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc) all panhandling for lunch money on a city street and then having to snuggle together at night in a cold subway station to keep warm. 

It’d be a different world, eh?

But forget all that for now and imagine that the majority of the world falls somewhere in the ‘middle’ of Maslow’s hierarcy - searching for love and belonging - which is how leaders get the power to foment unrest in the first place.   So, maybe we should all just a look in the mirror and start being happier with who we are...if you’re reading this, you probably aren’t homeless so you’ve got basic shelter.  And in my honest opinion, if you and the people you care about are all reasonably healthy then you are basically doing ‘okay’ in life...and that’s good enough to make me happy every day.

What about you?