Balancing wants and needs

I am a very materialistic person, and I'm trying to change that. Except for knives and gadgets, well, I would guess that those really don't fall into the big bucks category, anyway, I don't need expensive things. The only vehicle I really want is a Chevrolet Silverado, I drive a 91 S10 Blazer right now, and except for the SUV sucking gas, it is a great truck, I'm installing a new stereo tonight etc. I would like to have a big log cabin either on the Atlantic, the Susquehannah or the Chesapeake Bay, but I'll settle for a small rancher in a suburban community.


I make enough money to support myself comfortably, might not have the things I really want right now, but overtime helps out a lot. My main problem is that I don't always strive to save every dime that comes down the path. A friend of mine taught me that a penny saved is a dollar earned, but my father told me that if I spend my life saving pennies, I'll miss out on the finer things. Saving dollars is great, and isn't as time consuming. I was a kid, and went hog wild on the credit cards, and that is a real pain to pay, as most of the stuff I don't have any more, and I want to use the cash I have now for other things, but the credit I used has to be paid now.

I really enjoy this website, I get to see a lot of knives before I buy them in the passaround (Yangdu, Yvsa and Munk, when do we get to see a HI passaround, I'd put some money towards one), and I get to read reviews of knives before I buy them. Of course now I need all kinds of HI, I've gotten INFIized, I need Benchmade and Spyderco etc, but I realize that I don't need them right now. I used to accumulate knives before I came to BF, now, if I don't use it, it goes on the chopping block. I've sold or traded half of my collection (Silverfoxknows, how those Camillus knives holding up? :)), and filled it back in twofold, but I've finally come to realize this.

The material things in life are not what matters, family and friends matter. I need to buy a truck, I'm planning on buying a 99-02 Silverado, just because it would better suit my needs, and would be more reliable. I plan on having my other bills taken care of by then, looking forward to just rent and car insurance by then, and I will probably treat myself to one knife per month like I am doing now. But if it came down to choosing between a knife and the truck, I would definitely choose the truck. That may be heresy to some, but transportation is a priority to me.
 
From Ecclesiastes:

"There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, [1] to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun"
 
most of the time I'm pretty good about maintaining some kind of balance. Not living like a monk and not living too far beyond my means. I'm kinda surprised my tired rambling sparked this much discussion but I do appreciate the insights, it helps. It's just been a trying couple of months.

SilentHunter, they're holding up just fine. I still haven't given the USMC a good workout but the PSK is earning its keep. It's a little workhorse. How's the LTC?

Frank

I have to spread some reputation around.
 
As a reforming someone who has collected multiple iterations of everything, I agree with this statement:

"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."


EDIT: Ecclesiastes says it well: "All things toil to weariness; man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing."
 
SFK, I've used it a couple times, and it works fine, thank you very much :). But look what you did to me, :D :p, one kukri was enough to hold off the need for more, but now that I have two, I need to get a HI. My sig should be something like

addicted to Busse, Benchmade, HI, Spyderco.......................
 
SilverFoxKnows said:
I know suffering comes from attachment to things that were never meant to last forever.
Click to expand...

Not always true.

Some suffering is physical. Some is emotional. If you've ever had a loved one suffering (from you name it--cancer, divorce, whatever), you will suffer emotionally because of your empathy with your loved one. This has nothing to do with attachment to physical things, and this is only one example. There are many different kinds of suffering brought on by an infinite number of causes. I am learning a LOT about suffering lately. I'm not even sure how the suffering caused by some great physical trauma can be classified as having originated from attachment to things, unless you would classify your own body as "things".
 
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