What else does Tim need ?

Yahoo! thinks "Tim needs" the following.*

1. to join the band
2. a girlfriend
3. new shoes
4. YOU
5. a shirt
6. to have an opportunity to learn in low-risk, highly supportive learning environments that challenge him
7. to use his transmitter and receiver
8. David as much as David needs Tim
9. to understand how academic work applies to his future career goals
10. your messages to keep his spirits up

MSN thinks "Tim needs" the following.*

1. to get much more emotional.
2. your love, just like any young man his age.
3. you to click him
4. Help... Foster Parent Needed.
5. two wizards to take his place.
6. your help with: Doing Office Work
7. you to volunteer time on his campaign.
8. to know what a good problem solver he is
9. no special lighting or stage.
10. something simple
11. some help getting out of the pond

* I didn't include the duplicate entries or any referencing my own web site.

One blog I saw even had a little fill in the blank blog entry where one of the tamest fill in the blank questions was "Tim needs ______". I might post all sorts of crazy things but I sure wouldn't post a fill in the blank quiz like that.

I also found a web site called the Church of Tim. While that particular blog is in need of updating, I like the blog name a lot. I wish I would have thought of something clever like that.

So what does Tim think that Tim needs?

The first thing that came to mind was this bit of verse.

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou 
Beside me singing in the Wilderness - 
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

--Omar Khayyam (translated by Edward FitzGerald)

While I was searching for the author of that verse I came upon a listing in Amazon for Khayyam's verse newly translated by one Peter Avery. One of the reviews contained the poem in question. The newly translated version, said to be more faithful to the original text reads as follows.

Here is the new version.

If chance supplied a loaf of white bread,
Two casks of wine and a leg of mutton,
In the corner of a garden with a tulip-cheeked girl
There'd be enjoyment no Sultan could outdo.

After reading the first translation and the second, it's quite apparent the translators must have had different ideas about what the word translation might mean.

To finish my little riff on what I need. It seems like the older I get, the more I have. At the same time I find that I want the stuff I have less and less. When I am out tramping in the woods with only what fits in my pack I find I am at my best. The answer to what Tim needs is family, friends, and just enough stuff to carry in his pack.