As an organism there are many things I need, and even more things I want. Often these things overlap, I need food but I want a specific food. I need shelter, but I want a very nice maisonette near the ocean. I need love, but I want a hot swim suit wearing stereotyped nymph.

It seems almost all of life is about balancing these needs and wants. Food, water, shelter, love, hobbies, money, employment, communication, belonging, enjoyment. Are we creatures of need? Is our being defined by what we require? Do we crave input like Johhny 5 from the 80s film Short Circuit?

Even things which seem on the surface to be non-selfish, end up being psychologically selfish. Generosity improves our position in a group; charity can reduce feelings of guilt or shame. Most things can be traced back to 'I want, I need'

I need I want can be traced to the natural desire for union with a substantial reality that is fulfillment.
The essence of all things, our source of fulfillment is buried in the spiritual philosophies and religions of man.
What man is drawn to is its source of power and being. The mind translates that into ideas that seem fulfilling at a moment in time based on values we give to things we identify as external to us. We in ignorance (ignoring our essential nature) have become like monkeys jumping from tree to tree searching for the ideal banana because we have lost our connection to the biggest banana of all.
Being so far removed from it in thought and belief, we attach relative happiness to objects of desire which fade away or age and die.

The trouble is that some would say that the swinging from tree to tree is the goal. After 9/11, the chimp in chief said "go shopping."

If "the chimp" decided to attack Turkey from the rear, would Greece help, you think?

bananas and chimps, excellent analogy. We're in constant need of something, whether thats a better banana or a better branch. This desire is what Buddhism says causes all suffering (no need to bring the buddhist thread here though). This rings true to me, because we're hardly ever satisfied. Only a good meal, sex and then some light entertainment while I doze feels satisfying to me

But isn't the point that we are driven to swing from these branches, making patterns in history as we do so? Gods emotional carrot and stick to get our hairy apelike asses swinging around chasing dreams.