Need vs. Want

I've been at my new job for 9 months now. I've reached full gestation and I'm ready to spit this baby out. I have no idea what that means but since it's been 9 months I wanted to use that phrase. I'm not spitting anything out and I don't have any kind of baby, job or otherwise.

But this new job of mine (dazzling friendly parts dealer at your neighborhood appliance store. I sling dryer belts and ignitors!) has me realizing that many MANY people are confused in the need vs want department. I'd like to just clear it up a bit.

And here's my disclaimer:
I'm not telling anyone that they shouldn't be able to spend their hard earned money on whatever the heck they want to spend it on. What I'm saying is that sometimes, having an excess of hard earned money (or easily earned money, money freely gotten, whatever, just money) causes people to forget that what they NEED, what they WANT and what they DESERVE are not the same.

So here we go:

If your dishwasher breaks, leaks, stops mid cycle, or just refuses to clean your dishes anymore, you don't  have to call the repair place crying, screaming, cussing or being huffy. You just need to remember what you have forgotten. You HAVE a dishwasher that works. It is called left hand and right hand. Or your children's hands, if you have them. The amount of people acting like oxygen deprived maniacs who must have a working dishwasher or the world will come to a complete halt has been the most shocking part of my new gig.

And oh-my-jesus it's the day before christmas and you're having 14 people over and what, pray tell will you do without a working dishwasher???? Fourteen people you say? That's 28 hands!
Imagine that, instead of spending that energy on the dry heaves you're having because you're so worked up about the repair man not being able to come RIGHTTHISSECOND, that you told all your guests, with a gracious chuckle, that the dishwasher broke and you're washing, who's drying? Sometimes, the most fun we have after a family meal is all hanging in the kitchen chatting, arguing, horsing around, while washing the dishes.

If you have the type of guests that will look down on your for having a broken dishwasher, or that aren't willing to lend a hand and make it a group effort, then like mother used to say, they aren't friends worth having.

Your oven stopped cooking while the turkey was halfway done? Your frig conked out the morning of the big feast? Your dryer won't dry your clothes? Those things SUCK, they really do. But think about the hilarity of the story you could be telling in ten years to your kids, grandkids, whomever - if you don't LET it destroy your holiday.


   .....and we had the turkey, in the roasting pan in the back seat of the car to take it to Susie's house and use her oven, halfway cooked, covered in foil and we made Johnny sit on the floor next to it and dad stopped at a red light and sloshed turkey juice all over the place and the car smelled like Butterball for a month!

C'mon, it's a little funny.

Here's the point. We have gotten so used to having it all, that when something happens to disrupt our vision of how our life SHOULD be, we get all bent out of shape and crazy and make ourselves, and our poor appliance service people's lives miserable.

God forbid have to roll down your window by hand anymore. Wash a dish with soap and water. Hang a towel to air dry. Look up a word in a big dusty book on the bookshelf because Wifi is down. (remember dictionaries??) Oh the inconvenience!!!!!

This is our mindset:
I worked hard for this money and I choose to spend it on these devices and contraptions and service agreements that will make my life easier and I paid my good hard earned money for it so they damn well better work and work right every single time. And if they don't i'm gonna bitch and i'm gonna bitch hard and loud because I don't deserve this and SOMEBODY better make it right.

This is the truth:
Nothing is perfect. Control boards fail. Mechanical parts break. Stupid, inconvenient, annoying stuff HAPPENS. It does. And it will forever.  And you getting all worked up about it will not erase it or take it back or make it UNhappen.


So make this choice. Laugh it off. Heave a sigh and bang your dammit doll against the wall a few times. Then think about the people in this world who don't even have a dish to wash. Who are stuck in the hospital getting chemo but would LOVE to have to wash every single dish in your household if they could trade places with you. Who just lost their home and everything they possess because a typhoon scooped their house up and carried it out to sea but would love to have all of your clothing even though they would have to wash AND dry it by hand.

Lucky you to have these things, even if when they break it is a giant pain in the bum.
Use your energy for something else.
Be grateful for all that OTHER stuff you have that you don't really need.
And be nice to your repairman when he gets to your house, HE is your savior after all.