Consumerism is a cancer and the cure is more gratitude.
This is easy for me to say. I'm quitting my job, and my husband is changing his-- it's easy to say we need to reign in the spending, because we don't really have another option. But as we prepare to move into cheaper housing and I've been giving away bags of unused things, I am so grateful for just how much I have. I mean there are mothers that cannot afford baby clothes, and I had boxes of clothes locked in my basement that no one was using.
The strange thing is, that as I fill my car for the second time for the Salvation Army, I'm realizing that I'm not just more grateful for all the things I have. By giving away a tiny percentage of my excess, my life is just better. When you only own two pans, there's only ever two pans to wash. If there's only 10 toys in the living room, there's only ever 10 toys to put away.
Suddenly I'm looking at my six loads of undone laundry thinking, "what if I only ever had three loads of laundry to do."
Advertisers are geniuses. They are really good at their jobs, and their job is to convince you of a need you didn't know you had. An advertiser would look at my laundry pile and sell me a super efficient washing machine that can fit more clothes in the drum. But I could own less towels and clothes for free. I would have less loads of laundry to do; I would have less laundry to fold. Less messy piles. Less mental clutter. I would be free of the subtle guilt cringe I get every time I look at the laundry basket. And that is literally priceless.
This Christmas you will be sold gadgets and products that will reduce your stress and give you all your dreams. I recently saw an ad that by insinuation suggested that a voice-command computer would make you and your kids hang out together more, would make cooking at home easier, would help you connect more with your spouse---advertisers do not sell products, they sell an awesome life with that product in it.
Seriously. Play advertiser bingo this Christmas--family satisfaction, serenity, romance, laughter, adventure. Who knew kleenex boxes made your children feel so secure in your love. But seriously all of those emotions can be yours.....for free. Without buying a thing. That Echo commercial probably advertises features your smartphone already has, and you don't even use them. "Okay Google/Siri, set timer for 15 minutes" ---my phone does that but I still don't make homemade chocolate chip cookies. One, that saves me literally twenty seconds of effort over setting a timer by hand. Two, it's not for lack of a robot timer that I don't bake. I even have a robot dish cleaner, and I still don't bake.
But it's not the cookies that make families tighter. It's spending more time reading library books, exploring trails at the park, packing a brown bag lunch to eat together down by the duck pond. Free memories are what make families, are what make lives.
Buying stuff has never solved your problems. Or do you think that all the people leaving the Container Store with bags of merchandise will have a tidy closet six months from now.
Be grateful for the stuff you have. Get rid of the stuff your not grateful for. Be skeptical of advertising. Do the things that make you happy, and acknowledge that "a lack of stuff" is never what keeps you from doing it. Too much stuff might actually be keeping you from it. So sorry consumerism you're not helping, you're hurting and I don't have room for you in my life anymore.
Happy Thanksgiving-Independence Day
Stephanie
No comments:
Post a Comment