No Need to Buy into Consumer Culture

As Americans, all too often we crave material things and are so very concerned about our appearances. I will admit I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else. In fact, I’ll let you in on a couple little secrets. 1) I have recently moved into a house in Waverly and I have a room full of ‘stuff’ (most of which I don’t actually need) in addition to my room at my parent’s home that is still packed full of trinkets, clothes, and little unnecessary ‘things.’ 2) I have this odd compulsion to have my things match – my pajamas even have to match. And I need to wear some form of eye makeup everyday (even here) - otherwise, with my blonde eyelashes, my eyes appear to sink in and disappear off my face. But that all said, being here has taught me that it isn’t necessary.
Looking at the women around here, it is immediately apparent that clothing patterns or colors don’t need to match. The important thing is that the clothing fulfills its duty of covering your body. Why must we spend such a great deal of time and money on clothing that most people will replace in a couple months (if not sooner)? Westerners (and Europeans tend to do it also, so I shouldn’t just say ‘Americans’), we accumulate so much ‘stuff’ – be it clothes, cars, homes, furniture, etc. We use our ‘stuff’ (and how much of it we have) to show those around us our status. We are always competing with one another – consciously or not – and we are always trying to have newer, bigger, or better ‘stuff.’ Many of us are blessed with money and the ability to live more than comfortably and we spend our lives striving for more. But somewhere along the way, we have forgotten to live. We have forgotten how to be in relationships with the people around us… relationships that don’t revolve around money and what it can buy. We keep our extra money to ourselves and hold our possessions close, so as to not loose our symbols of status. But we can’t take any of it with us and in the meantime, there are people all around the world who don’t have that luxury. I have this amazing book back at home that I absolutely treasure – I recommend that if you get the chance, to check it out sometime. It is called ‘Material World’ by Peter Menzel and it is a compilation of pictures; they depict families in different countries. Each family was asked to take all of their possessions out of their house and set them up in front of their home. It is amazing to see the difference between the American family and families in other countries. But what I find most important when looking at and hearing about things like this is that we are not to pity them. I think that what is more important is to look at it critically, which people have the things they need and who just has a pile of things that often go unused and gather dust.
One of our first weekends here, Peter and I were talking in the car about how we had already developed a new set of eyes for how we perceive the homes we pass. We joked about how when most Americans would see the mud-built, tin-roofed homes here they would feel bad for these people but we had already developed a sense of appreciation for these homes – we saw bigger mud and tin homes and thought, ‘gee, those people must be pretty fortunate.’ That conversation made me start to think… why do we need all the stuff that we have? Take my family for example (and I’m not picking on you mom and dad, I just know our family best). Currently, my mom and dad have a total of five cars for the two of them (one car barely works and two are convertibles and can only be driven in summer). We live in a two story house with three bedrooms for the four of us, three tvs, three bathrooms, and a finished basement filled with all sorts of ‘toys’ and entertainment. We have full closets and dressers full of clothes (most of which we never wear). I think the change in culture has made this even more apparent to me. Here, I have about 7 or 8 shirts, a sweatshirt, two pairs of pants and two pairs of capris – I have survived just fine. Perhaps I need to do some ‘spring cleaning when I get home. Rid myself of the meaningless clutter and be more conscious in the future of my needs versus my wants. I suppose that will be my (very) late new years resolution.
Peace.

One of my most valued possessions.