Written on February 9, 2026
Surveys are back! The weather is finally permitting again! This week's question was about whether we are needed.
The results
Why cardboard this time, you ask? I already lit my cigar and couldn't go into Blick to buy poster board. So I asked some people I recognized if they would and I'd venmo them, and one of them said she had cardboard and offered to bring it to me. It was just big enough, too!
There's no way I'm counting all that. I'm gonna wing it and say it's about 110 yes's to 40 no's, almost a 3 to 1 ratio.
Originally it was more evenly tied, for maybe the first 30 votes on each side.
But then the Yes's really took off and won in a landslide. I'm surprised how many people said yes! I would have thought it would be more evenly split.
The answers
I could not take notes yesterday because my fingers were too cold to function. And this is being written a day later. So we'll have to make do.
Two or three people said that the world does not need them, that it would continue revolving without them, but that they need the world, or they're happy to be a part of the world, or that they'll enjoy being in the world while they can.
A few people pointed out that the whole world does not need them, but that a few individuals do.
One young man said he calls his mom and she likes to talk to him, and that his job is not a net positive, perhaps even a net negative. I think he concluded that the world does not need him, but I don't remember, because he went and bought me gloves.
Several people said no, but that they are okay with it.
Some people said all their roles are replacable, implying not only careers and jobs, but relationships.
One young woman said she wanted to be a mom and go and live a quiet, peaceful life in the country, or something. I couldn't quite hear her.
A good number of people who wrote no didn't explain why, and just walked away looking sad. I told most of them that I think they're mistaken, and unfortunately some of them took it as me trying to be encouraging, so they just agreed with me to end the conversation, and walked on, as you should do when you think someone is only talking to you for his own sake.
One young woman said that a lot of people don't see the value they give others, but those who receive that value see the value and apprecaite it.
But I really mean it. And not in some empty, cliche way. I think every single person has something unique to offer, that makes the world a better place. Or even if they don't have it right now, they could eventually develop or discover it, and they're the only one who can.
A good half dozen people said that the world needs me, because of the signs that I do.
Some of them asked what my answer is, and I told them that I put down a Yes, but only because people like my signs.
The topic
I honestly don't remember how I came up with the topic, except that, in general, I feel like the world doesn't need me, and I wonder why God is keeping me around as long as he is, and I was thinking about this yesterday during Mass and Confession, and it occurred to me that we don't always see the value we contribute, and sometimes we don't contribute any value yet, but we have the potential to.
This is in fact true for all babies. They're useless drains on society, except that they sometimes make us smile by their cuteness, and they have the potential to grow into someone useful and reciprocatory, who provides at least as much value to society as they consume, value that only they can provide.
For most of last month, I felt that I consumed far more value than I contributed, and that anyone else could have contributed it instead, and they'd probably do a better job too, and it made me feel utterly worthless and defeated.
That's also my answer to the theological question that I've never heard a satisfactory answer for yet: how can sins against no one in particular be grave? The typical answer has always been "it's against God," and I never liked that answer. But now it all makes sense to me: it's grave because you're destroying the person you could and should become, the person that society needs you to become.
Because everyone is unique. Every single person has value that only they can give to the world. I'm fully convinced of it.