Whelmed

"You can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"
"I think you can in Europe." - Dialogue from the movie "10 Things I Hate About You"

I find the English language fascinating. I am amazed at the relationship between words like flammable, inflammable, and noninflammable. I was discussing our linguistic oddities with a friend today, when I brought up the overwhelmed/underwhelmed/whelmed situation. And on this Thanksgiving day, I began to wonder: What does it say about our American culture that there's no such word as whelmed in our vocabulary?

Our culture is full of things that are overwhelming. We're overwhelmed with work and stress. We're constantly bombarded with noise and color that assault our senses. We're focused on a sort of arrogant overabundance, where we always want more, more, more of everything. We want bigger houses, bigger meals, more possessions, more money... We always seem to want more than enough.

And yet, even with all of that abundance, we are often unhappy. The constant barrage of sensory experiences is so great that we're never really impressed or satisfied by much of anything. We are unimpressed by the world, by what we see and hear. Our desires and expectations have such a high threshold that nothing seems to meet them. There's never enough for us to be satisfied, and we find ourselves underwhelmed.

It seems that what we really need, what we should really be striving for, is to be whelmed. It seems to me that becoming whelmed involves two parts. The first is stepping down from the pursuit of the overwhelming. We need to reset our expectations. We need to focus on simplicity. What do we really need? What are our genuine necessities? When is enough truly enough? As a pastor colleague reminded us in worship this morning, the three things we really need are food, shelter, and companionship. I'm assuming that most of you who are reading this blog have at least two of those three, since technology like computers and wireless routers usually follows after those two on Mazlo's hierarchy of needs.) We all have what we really need. So why are we looking for more?

That's the other step in becoming whelmed: learning to recognize all that we do have. We have so much to be thankful for. We have food, and not just a single serving per day of food that is bland but meets our nutritional requirements, but a variety of abundant, delicious, healthy (and not so healthy) foods from which we can choose. We have shelters with indoor plumbing, climate control, storage space, and creature comforts. And we have companionship. We have the companionship of family, friends, coworkers, colleagues, congregations, and even acquaintances and beloved ones who are far away, yet connected to us through various forms of technology. How GREAT is that? Seriously, aren't all of our food options wondrous? Aren't our homes amazing? And what greater blessing could there be than the relationships we enjoy with one another?

Friends, I believe what we really need to do is learn to be whelmed. We need to overcome the social pressure for more, bigger, better and instead seek enough. If we can reduce our needs and find joy in what we have instead of constantly striving for more, I think we can find deep contentment and happiness. Plus that will leave us a lot more time, energy, and resources to share with others, so that maybe everyone can be whelmed. And that's really the goal, right? The goal is for the striving and fighting to cease and everyone to have enough. That sounds a lot like the kingdom of God. And it could start with all of us becoming whelmed.