Essentials

 

A man without a mask went into a Welsh supermarket and tore away the plastic sheeting which was preventing customers from accessing “non-essential” items. People should not be going into stores without a mask, so I immediately felt a strong disapproval. And if you don’t agree with the rules, here or there, this form of direct action is not the way to deal with the situation.

Nevertheless, I was struck by his assertion that children’s clothes are not “non-essential items”. It’s hard to disagree with that. Especially with the weather becoming cooler and damper. I would imagine that most families can cope for a few weeks, but clothes can become spoilt, lost or stolen and children grow out of them. I think I get that point, at least.

It’s even more true that children need food, and it is shocking that in modern Britain we have families who cannot feed their children properly, and that it is left to a footballer to challenge the situation with child food poverty. I gather that the Welsh lockdown situation on essential items is to be clarified. I wish that caring for children’s welfare in poorer families would also be clarified and remedied.

I wonder just what we honestly think of as “essential”. We need food, but do we really need the vast choice presented at the average supermarket? Do we need it pre-chopped, processed, microwaveable, ready to serve every whim? Do we need the sheer variety of fruit flown in from around the world? Do we really need every possible variety of our (daily) bread? Our current crisis demonstrates how we expect so much that is not truly essential.

What is essential? Knowing our true needs is a spiritual issue. Jesus warns us not to become too concerned or worried about what we eat or wear, and he lived in considerable poverty among those who were ignored or rejected by society. He could see that we can become overtaken with acquiring more and more, with our own status, focused on our needs and desires. His message was that the essential approach was to trust in God and follow the way of the kingdom.

In days like these, we become aware of the limitations of our world’s options, and hopefully more conscious of the needs of others who are in greater need than we are. It is truly a wretched situation but it has valuable lessons for us if we will but notice. The true essentials are to love God and our neighbours as ourselves and this dual command is the essential filter for all we think and do.