Enough already!

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.