Gold , Frankincense and Myrrh
Make some money but don’t let money make you
~ Tanzania
Slow life gives you time. Time to pay attention to little things. And time to think.
Today, I’m wrapping up stuff. I’m wrapping the items in brown paper, clean takeaway bags or newspaper, as the glossy Christmas wrap that most people buy is not recyclable. I’m using lavender and twigs from our garden as decoration. They will go to compost later.
Christmas is coming and for once, we are going just a little commercial. We don’t usually bother. But this year, we will be exchanging a few gifts. All are consumables. None of us need more stuff, but we like to eat and drink!
I had a conversation recently, with someone who complained bitterly to me about not having enough money. He went on to tell me about the oversized, plasma screen he had to buy his wife and the latest, overpriced cell phone that he had to buy his teenage daughter. I asked why?
It’s ludicrous!
He explained it away by saying “it’s our culture” but that’s nonsense. Endless consumerism, the ‘buy, buy ‘buy’ of it all, has been exported to us through advertising and the obsession with celebrities. But we are free to reject it.
It’s easy to see how so many get caught up in the ‘keeping up with Joneses’ mentality. Modern society does its best to condition us to want more. And people become defined by what they have in life, not what they do.
This extract from the novel The Little Prince explains it well:
“Grown-ups like numbers…If you tell grown-ups, ‘I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves at the roof…,’ they won’t be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!”
The message is usually price = value; purchases, property, personnel. And it’s pants!
People have bought into the notion that the monetary value of a gift, is somehow indicative of how important someone is. But the amount of money spent on something is rarely important.
Let’s take Christmas presents as an example. Do children actually know the monetary value of the multiple gifts that they receive? Of course not! Do they care? No!
A few years ago we went to visit friends of friends in Galicia, North West of Spain. They live very simply, in a renovated farmhouse, with a kitchen garden and ‘off grid’. It was inspiring to see. They have two children. They told me that most of the plastic toys that the children had, had been given as gifts from well meaning family and friends. The children were not that interested. I was left watching the little girl one afternoon, who had been placed inside a playpen, full of plastic toys. She started to cry. After a while, I lifted the girl out of the playpen and sat her down on the gravel next to me. She sat for another half an hour or so, simply picking up individual stones and letting them drop on the ground. The boy was busy running in the field and chasing butterflies. The toys didn’t get a look in.
And yet, at this time of year, many people will feel tremendous pressure, financially and emotionally, when it comes to Christmas. Some people will overstretch themselves, maxing out credit cards to check off those items on the Christmas gift list. In January, many will be in debt.
Where’s the sense in that?
I remember a heated discussion with friends on NYE many years ago. Most people in the room were talking about hopes for their careers and buying better cars or bigger houses. Stuff. The wine was flowing. I chirped up “if you gave me $1,000 right now, I’d think, where can I go, not what can I have?” Maybe I was always wired that way, searching out experiences and opportunities to travel.
Bottom line, we are all consumers. Almost no one is exempt. But what we spend our money on is a choice. We need to use our heads.
And the reality is, the material things don’t really matter.
What will you be gifting this Christmas?
Maggie M/ Mother City Time