Sometimes, don’t you just want to get back to basics? Wouldn’t it be nice to just extract the essence of things and do away with the extra add-ons that somebody decided is necessary for our lives to be fulfilled.
Personally, I believe I could be a happy camper, without commercials or advertising cluttering up my life. I can’t think of one “influencer” who has pointed out a product to me that has been life changing.
I’m one of those people who seek out something that I think I need – I confess I rely a bit on Google. But then, DIY is built into my character and if I can’t essentially do it myself, I seek out “Ms. Google” or “Mr. YouTube” for assistance if my friends and neighbors are preoccupied.
Our bibliophile friend Sherry asked me to write about the word, “essential.” She feels the word essential is ubiquitous and perhaps over-used. So here we go, Sherry, this is for you.
Perhaps our culture has been “essentialized.” You might be under the impression that everything that can be bought is essential to your well-being. We live in a capitalistic society, based upon buying and selling, profit and loss, “making money,” and work, work, work, or steal it one way or another, if you can’t earn it.
Do we ever stop to think, what is essential? What is the essence of life, the basics, the core principles, what can’t we do without?
I’m talking here about something crucial, indispensable, or fundamental to your life; not every comfort created by humankind. Each of our definitions of essential will vary depending on our life’s circumstances.
For example, if you have arthritis in your hands, an electric can opener is probably essential to you, whereas someone with nimble hands can easily make do with a manual twist-type can opener. A snowblower is not essential to someone without a driveway, or with access to a plow or an able-bodied human with a hand-shovel.
However, I wonder if it’s about time that our society cuts the crap and gets back to what’s essential. The 1974 Hollies song, The Air That I Breathe, claims in the chorus, “All I need is the air that I breathe and to love you.” If it only were so simple.
Since the onset of the Pandemic, and mention was made of “essential workers” out on the front lines, the word essential has become a bit over-extended. “Essential” has become watered down in its impact and instead of pointing to a vital requirement of life, it’s simply a generic term for important.
When a healthcare professional refers to a disease as essential, as in essential hypertension or essential tremors, they are basically saying the cause is unknown. It’s idiopathic. Well, how about that! You just have it, and we don’t know why, what from, or much of anything else, let’s be honest.
The very essence of something is the characteristic which defines it. For example, the reason we call oils that give plants their characteristic odors, essential oils are because the smell of lavender is characteristic only of lavender, not eucalyptus.
Another word for essential is fundamental. I like this synonym because it’s based on the word, foundational. Without a foundation, everything built upon it crumbles; there is no system without a foundation. Everything built requires a solid foundation. Essence is that foundation.
Essential is vital. Without a vital thing in place, without its very nature, it destroys itself if removed. It’s not just important or necessary, it’s required to exist.
Air to breathe is essential. And if we’re to believe the Hollies, love is too.
Love is surely vital to life. Having been married for over forty-five years to a professional percussionist, I might take offense to the “banging gong” reference in the biblical love chapter, I Corinthians 13. It is said there, essentially, that I can be a notorious orator, a gifted linguist, or impressive activist, but without love I’m just a noise-bag.
I think that one can finesse a gong, but I get the reference to a noisy gong in the “love chapter” and I have no argument with it. The Beatles were a little bit off when they said, Love Is All Ya Need, because we do need air, and water, and such. But, love, oh my, love – “faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.”
The Bible has some good stuff in it. For example, “Love covers sin.” This is probably one of the indispensables, or essential qualities of love. When you’re loved, you’re covered, protected, concealed as a target, enveloped.
Love is essential to life. Love covers our many foibles. Have you noticed that when you love somebody, they can be a convicted criminal, a menace to society, be a member of a group you would otherwise despise, possess any number of attributes which people dislike, but you cover them. They aren’t just anybody, they’re your loved ones and you make excuses for them, protect them, and pardon them.
A lot of things are important in life. But love is essential to human wholeness. So, the Hollies were pretty much right. Love and the air that we breathe are essentially the only essentials in life.