I have enough!
I have enough in my life.
I have enough consumer goods: clothes, shoes, cosmetics, handbags, furniture, kitchen items, household linens, books, DVDs, CDs, toys, electronic and electrical goods.
My family has a car, a house, many other so-called 'necessities' besides.
I am a product of my generation, and was taught by my schooling, my peers, my parents and my mass media that to consume is good. That to have is to be. That the more I can have, buy, purchase, use, throw away, and own, the more worthy a person I will be.
I have been taught from even before I could speak that although our society pays lip-service to the idea that human value is measured in such traits as honesty, integrity, fairness, faith, kindness and temperance, in reality people are valued not by these virtues but by how many dollars they earn and own, and how many resources they use and lay waste to.
I have been taught that in our society, a person's value is as a consumer first, then as a human being second. The Seven Heavenly Virtues fall way behind.
But I have had enough. I have enough.
For the last three years, I have been practicing frugality. I have been undertaking the No More Stuff challenge, I have read and am practicing the techniques I learned in the brilliant book Your Money Or Your Life, and I have made my decision.
I do not want to be a consumer. I want to be a human being, and my humanity includes the following roles: wife, mother, citizen, sister, lover, friend, environmentalist, caretaker of the world, volunteer, writer, thinker, gardener, homemaker, matriarch.
I looked up 'consume' in the dictionary. Its definitions included 'to do away with completely,' 'to squander' and 'to waste or burn away'.
It is time that we renounced our demotion to 'consumers' and reclaimed our status as individual human beings. I here and now reclaim mine.
I see the future offering distinct and different paths. One is the path of the consumer, where we will burn and waste away the entire earth for ephemeral fashions, cheap air flights, SUVs, and hamburgers.
The other is the path of the human being, placing community, friendship, diversity, honesty, temperance, and charity above chain-store cheapness, McMansions, and the latest iPod.
We have a choice. We always did. All we have to do is open our eyes to see it.
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3 comments:
daharja, I really enjoyed this post. I am also trying to move toward a more sustainable and simpler way of living by reducing my consumtion. I guess it just makes sense if you give it more that a seconds thought. I enjoyed reading your thoughts.
P~
Yes!! That's what I'm saying as well!! I have the Money or your Life book around somewhere. I should find it and read it again. Right now I'm reading "Affluenza", have you read that one? There is a movie as well that I've rented from the library called "Escape from Affluenza". I think you'd like it.
You've put into words much of what I'm feeling lately, but you've managed to express yourself much better that I. Good luck on your journey!
I think it's funny the the most successful marketing is aimed at the families with newborn babies. people forget that children are the oldest product mankind has ever produced. I think that we can do without the triwheel walker the special plasstic bottles and toys and safety equipment for the first year of a childs life. -talk about planned obsolescence.
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