In a post last week, I threw some shade on Maslow’s triangle. My good friend and true child-rearing expert, Bea Graves, pushed back a little on my thesis. She is someone who raised her biological brood of children and then raised a second set of foster children with great skill, toughness, and compassion.
In the comments of my former post, she makes a very good point: Providing the basics to children who have lacked them can cause a burst of growth and maturity.
She is not wrong.
Here is my response.
As I said in my post last week, Maslow’s triangle does explain some things about humans. We do have basic needs. We generally suffer when those needs are not met.
And although we are anti-fragile, there is a limit to our anti-fragileness. Weight-lifting, exercise, and germs DO strengthen the human body. But, weights that are too heavy? Too much exercise? And too much— or the wrong kind of—germs. . .
Well, those can cause damage and even death.
But I still say Maslow misses something.
He doesn’t take into account that humans are spiritual. Sometimes we pull from a hidden reserve of motivation and passion. We also receive divine help at times. Many people have looked back at a difficult time and concluded, “I could not have come through that without God’s help.”
The world of sports.
I know almost nothing about sports.
But, I do know that sports are interesting because the outcome can’t be predicted. Underdogs can win. Relatively insignificant errors from a stronger team can embolden their opponents, and shift the direction of an entire game. If the best-resourced team always won, there’d be no purpose in watching the games. [And there would be no betting industry, either]. Huge upsets like the Miricle on Ice may not be common. But, they happen.
World of recovery
I do know a little about addiction recovery.
And I can assure you, there are no slam dunks in recovery. People who have everything going for them can become chronic relapsers. And people I thought had no chance at recovery defy my expectations every day.
There is no formula—and certainly no silver bullet for addiction recovery.
Yes, resources help. Maslow’s nifty triangle has some utility. It’s not that people aren’t influenced by material resources. We are material beings. But we are also spiritual.
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7
We have souls, and we have God. We are as Tim Keller was fond of saying, “the stuff of earth and the breath of God.”
If we deny the spiritual nature of existence, we will constantly be surprised. A man who believes a monkey is a dog will never be able to explain why his dog swings from trees and can peel a banana. Likewise, a man who looks at his fellow human beings and thinks he is observing Naked Apes will never be able to explain the Hallelujah Chorus.
I am closing out this post with some Luis Armstrong. Luis was born into abject poverty, his father left him at an early age, he obtained only a 5th-grade education, and at the age of 12, he was sent to “The Colored Waifs Home” for juvenile delinquency. Yet he left an indelible mark on the development of Jazz. And this piece—The St James Infirmary—is as good evidence for a soul as anything else I can think of.
Love me some Louie! Thank you, Bro.