“The things you own end up owning you.” – Tyler Durden
One of my favorite bands, Switchfoot, have channeled Durden in a recent song entitled “If The House Burns Down Tonight.” Towards the end of the song, they state:
And all those lies that mattered most to me
Were draining me dry making a ghost of me
And if the house burns down tonight
I got everything I need, everything I need
There’s a fire coming that we all will go through
You possess your possessions or they possess you
And if the house burns down tonight
I got everything I need when I got you by my side.
As the country continues to hurtle down the road towards the Great Crisis, I remain convinced that a large part of our problem is contained in this idea. See, over 100 years ago, consumerism wasn’t a thing. Except for perhaps the very rich, no one owned a bunch of things for the sake of owning more things. Homes were far smaller, mostly because we had less stuff.
Then the wars came and we not only the arsenal of freedom but the Strip Mall of the World. Madison Avenue became more powerful than whoever sat in the White House and before long, we were chasing ghosts disguised as new trends or hot fashion. We lost touch with any concept of contentment. Only in America can someone have a house crammed full of things, so full that the garage is top to bottom boxes and stuff, so much so that some boxes haven’t been opened in years, and yet the family talk or think in terms of needing a bigger house and newer things…and usually then lament their poverty that has them trapped in such a sad scenario.
Defeating this demon of gluttony is no easy task. Perhaps here in the USA, the battle is long over and the best one can hope for is to beat it back a tad bit in your own life. But it will keep coming. Relentless. What used to be the fun moment of looking at the Sears Wish Book, that one time a year when you thought about new toys, has become a daily drool-fest staring at your phone of all the millions of things that Amazon or Wal-Mart has for you. The hooks get set early and are loath to let go.
I have some nasty weed vines growing around my house. They’ve been here for all of the 23 years I’ve lived here. I don’t think I could eliminate them with even the toxic Round-Up. So, I fight a delaying retreat where I will pull up, dig down for roots and generally pull them back to my self-declared DMZ…usually off my bushes, trees and house. But these weeds (two or three different varieties) are relentless. They always come back. Moreover, they have a version of evil tentacles or feet, little hooks or suckers, that will clamp into whatever nearby in order to keep climbing. At times when I pull them back, the suckers will remain on the side of the house or tree. Or, at times the little spikes will literally clamp into my hand in a desperate attempt to forestall being tossed into the compost pile.
Our USA consumer sickness is just like that. Gluttony that is never satisfied.
Jesus spoke to this many times, but recently have come to the view that his famous take down of the “Rich Young Ruler” perhaps applies more to me and the rest of us here in the USA than ever before. I know–we shouldn’t imply the “go and sell your possessions” is a command from Jesus to everyone, or maybe anyone else other than that one man. But his failure, and thus the point of the pointed directive, was that he was living the life Tyler Durden and Switchfoot described. His possessions had him in their grasp, wrapped around his life just like my evil vines do in my yard. And, well, I think many of us here in the US are sick like that too.
I am headed back to Mexico in a few weeks to serve once again with Growers First. I know I will again see a very different culture while there. They aren’t perfect down there in Mexico. They have consumeristic shops and malls too. Heck the city I will fly into, Huatulco is a resort with some fancy hotels, restaurants…just like Orlando, built on the idea of consumerism. But, with the average people I will interact with, I am confident that I will once again get a glimpse back in time to the people the USA used to be.
Like my yard, perhaps there is no victory in the aggregate. I know we can’t turn off the Internet nor ask Target, Macy’s or your local mall to sell less things. At the very least, though, you can fight your own personal battle. How? Give things away. Declutter. At the very least, twice a year go through your house with a ruthlessness to get rid of stuff. Every time you are given a new something, give an old something away (shoes, shirts, books, kitchen gear, knickknack, etc…). Own things longer. Only give experiences as gifts (a dinner out, a museum visit or movie tickets).
This is no simple issue. This will take a clear determination on your part. But for your own mental, philosophical and spiritual health, it is a step you need to take. We are sick in this country. We are rich and yet we only see ourselves as poor, as lacking that new next cool thing. In the meantime, we not only go through life numbly thinking we need something else, we more easily miss the person around us in true need.