Consumerism

Something I work on is trying to stay away from consumerism.
Our culture seems to define success as getting more and more and more. Even our GNP is measured in growth, quantity over quality.

The ads on TV, radio, before the movies, in magazines, and on-line offer a thousand things we didn't know we needed as necessities.  I try to just ignore it all, then something catches my eye and I get sucked in.  I think I need that thing, but the truth is that thing doesn't fill a hole that the ad created.  I will just want more the next day.

My friend says "it's The Man, trying to get you to borrow to buy, then be a slave for the rest of your life paying it back."
I dream of going off the grid, growing my own food, lighting a fire to stay warm. Then I get into my comfortable bed in my temperature controlled house, and watch a movie on my new gadget.

Finding the balance is a lifetime of work, I guess.

"Beauty surrounds us, but we need to be walking in a garden to know it."
--Rumi