Less Gifts and Far More Christmas Would Be A Blessing

Even The Grinch Knows This

Each year, I hope we will see fewer consumers gone mad. Unfortunately, while we constantly have the notion of climate change and going green jammed down our throat people seem to buy just to be buying. Yes, Christmas is the time of year when we buy and give in an act we have all come to know as gift giving. 

In a mind-numbing barrage, stuff peddlers rush to fill any need that can be imagined. We are even asked to reach out and consider, and speculate, on the needs and desires that others might have. Over the years our lives have become so crammed with material goods, our drawers and closets are now chucked full of the trendy apparel of last season, exercise equipment, knick-knacks, and electronic equipment. For some people, the place where they live is about to explode unless they move to a larger house or rent a storage unit.

Many garages across America are so full of this stuff cars can no longer be parked inside. Neurotic people with overactive pack-rat syndrome destroy their quality of life with clutter and junk. This stuff will often sit in one place for years while they can’t find a chair to sit in or a clean tabletop on which to eat. Ads like - "get it all" or "have it all," live on the cutting edge, buy all of these high-powered models, and "put your life in the zone." fill our lives. This new-fangled electronic gizmo does it all and more, look at the artwork, let it wash over you, surround you, and cover you up. Check out that perfect car, driving it would make life a zen-like experience. Buy it now with no payment for 90 days.

Consumers often get caught up in the game of finding the perfect patio furniture and buying it only to use it twice. It then sits on a patio deck to fade in the sun. Never before has man had so much, but it's far from enough. The idea things will be “swell" and life downright peachy only after you fill it with the right kind of stuff is a slippery slope. The fact is for some people they will never be able to get enough. The one thing we can count on is that tomorrow the new models arrive, better and sleeker with even more options!

During Christmas, the overwhelming efforts we make to fill our needs with material objects in an effort to achieve happiness are almost laughable. We rush around creating video and digital images in a desire to preserve those precious moments but most are never downloaded, viewed, or printed. We may have the ability to collect and store vast quantities of information and data but much of it is never processed or utilized. It is all akin to poor quality or obsolete data entered into a system which results in "garbage in - garbage out."    

It seems the ads filling our Sunday paper and mailboxes weigh ten pounds, the ads, the ads, the ads. Many are from stores we have never heard of and will never visit. They are all the same, junk, junk, junk, buy me some happiness! It is only natural to be drawn to nice things but new is merely a point in time and not a reflection on quality or utility value. We have so much junk we can’t find the item we need or want, so we are forced to buy a replacement until we find where it was placed. You know it’s true – yes, you are guilty, so are we all.

The fact there is a lot more to life than stuffing your face with too much food and running around trying to find things to buy. This is made clear by the picture appearing to the right. Life is about more than buying and spending. So many people are not as fortunate as we that have been born in America and we should count our blessings and good fortune. When all is said and done it is more likely the most precious moments in our lives will center around people rather than things. We should never forget that trying to do the right thing for our fellow man is an important part of being alive.

We have even been convinced that we should not leave our house or office without a bottle of water, if it were not for bottled water, we would all be dead. Bottled water was a three hundred billion dollar industry last year. Oh, how our needs have grown. Well, all I really need is a lamp, an ashtray, and well maybe a yogurt maker. That’s all I need! Using a line by the songwriter-singer Jimmy Buffet, I want to go where the women and water are free. All this means that for many of us it is time to take a deep breath and forget about material things. This might make a lot more room for us to remember what is really important, people and family.

Merry Christmas to All!!

 Republishing of this article is welcomed with reference to Bruce Wilds/AdvancingTime Blog