What does it really say about our society that we have allowed every holiday to be turned into [View all]

[WCGreen]

yet another opportunity to sell crap.

How shallow do we appear to the consumer experts to think that every minute waking hour is to be spent on contemplating purchasing some kind of crap with no chance to ponder anything deeper than what shiny pretty thing I can snag for a cheaper price.

Perhaps if we really are more than that, we would never have let ourselves become so distracted.

We are slaves to consumption.

A few years ago, I started to really look around to see what was important to me.

Over the years, I have scaled down my wardrobe, cut back on my incessant collecting of things and got rid of a mess of stuff that I just didn't need any more.

Good lord, I had over sixty ties! I now have five and I do not care if they are the right length, the right width and the right fabric.

Don't get me wrong, I still love to buy things. But big things, things that make me happy to have. I bought a good guitar and a good keyboard, I was once in a band, and I have been getting much joy and comfort from taking the time and learning about my instruments and how to play them as well...

What I mainly concerned about now, I guess, is that so many people in charge of our political and economic think the only way we can get ourselves out of this Malaise, is for us to start spending again.

Maybe it's time we stop looking at ourselves as meerly consumers and start thinking about the true value of a life well spent.

After all, if your live is all about spending, about mindlessly accumulating things rather, than than perhaps you have wasted your time on this earth.

All I can really say is I want my life to be more than that.

I'm not banking on an afterlife, but if there is, I am pretty sure that those of us who never contemplated anything deeper than how I can get my hands on a ........ all will be well, then you may be condemned, like Sisyphus to keep pushing up that hill and falling back just to start again....