The calculus of need

In the old assessment

To speak of need is to confess a lack

Admitting need is weakness

And to ask for what you need

entails a sacrifice

of dignity, of power, of position —

a painful act of desperate submission

In another way of seeing

Needing is the interlock of love —

The contact that inspires our hearts

to gratitude

I need you as I need the air I breathe

Not contemplating lack

but just acknowledging

how sweetly and how deeply we’re connected

Not bound, but bonded —

in our unity perfected

Performing once again

the calculus of need

where we consider what to claim

what to concede

To leave the old assessment for the new will be

the algorithm that will set us free.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 15, 2012