The Nescessity List

Finally, I got my internet connection back on. Apparently, my network card was loose; it took me an hour of probing to really find out what’s wrong (yeah, I’m not a computer geek); and I thought TMNet has disconnected my line. He he…

Excruciating. That was how I felt when I thought I may not be able to go online for the next few weeks. The last time my line was cut off by TMNet, it took them three weeks, twenty-one phone calls and one very angry customer to make them reconnect my line. Okay, it was my fault to start off with because I haven’t paid the bills for full three months (shame on me).

Relieved. That is how I feel now. Imagine how my next few weeks will be without internet conection. No e-mails, no MSN chatting; I won’t be able to download the latest episode of CSI Season 8 on Friday; I won’t be able to listen to the football commentry on www.manutd.com (my TV blew up… so, the net is the only place for me to get my weekly dosage of football); I won’t be able to do any research for my studies; and I may have to burn a hole in my pocket to go online in cyber cafe down the block. No, I’m not addicted to the Internet, it has just become a nescessity now to me; or has it? 

Has modern inventions like cell phone, computer, internet and vehicles become such a nescessity in our lives, that without them, it will be as if we have lost part of our limbs?  When was the last time that only food, air, water and shelter made up the numbers in our nescessity list?

The last time I struck cell phone, television, computer, mp3 player and….. civilisation out of my list was two years ago in Outward Bound Lumut. A full five days without any contact with the outside world; not even newspapers. Can you imagine how I felt? Pain. No. Liberating. Yes.

It was that five days that I’ve experienced a minute of the condition our ancestors have been living for eons ago. Minute, because I was in cargo pants, t-shirts and wind breaker, compared to dry leaves and “god knows what they wore back then.”

But it is moments like this that humans learn how to stick together. Without our technologies, we are all impaired. Everyone’s equal, and gone were the materialistic side of us. We worked together to save each other’s @ss. Winning was nothing; surviving was everything. In fact, surviving became winning. Eight hours in the middle of nowhere; and you will realise more than ever that no man is an island. Just when you thought you are some higher-being, able to live alone without help, your thought were crushed right to the smallest crumble. You need people, and people need you.

Guess I should add humans to my nescessity list…

Mental Note:

Nescessity: Food, water, air, shelter…. and homo sapiens sapiens…..