Black Friday & Listening to Jesus

And Jesus said to them "Take care! 

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed:

for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. 

                                       Luke 12:15

I'm currently reading JB McKinnon's thoughtful and well written book The Day the World Stops Shopping. The prologue sums up what is to come with the heading We must stop shopping but we can't stop shopping. Many of us realize that we are part of a society which is addicted to accumulating stuff in a way that would have been unimaginable to our grandparents let alone the majority of the world's population alive today. b

We are bombarded with advertising offering bargains for items it hadn't occurred to us we want, which isn't the same as what we need. There are almost fanatical trends in gadgets which end up in yard sales. Remember when it seemed that every home had an electric bread maker? Where are they now? My sensible spouse, Ruth, is an excellent cook and baker and she regularly warns me against buying the current indispensible kitchen item, insisting that we don't need another small appliance cluttering our counter. 

A consumers' society cannot possibly know how to take care of a world...

the attitude of consumption spells ruin to everything it touches. 

                                                   Hannah Arendt

I have resisted purchasing most outdoor "time-savers" which are constantly being updated, are costly, and usually noisy. How many of us are complaining about losing weight during the pandemic? Yet we are convinced that we need stuff which actually reduces our physcial activity. 

I've been scouting the flyers for months now in search of a rechargeable, lightweight vacuum cleaner. I almost bought one yesterday, except the one we have now works fine even though it is heavier and has to be plugged in. So I talked myself off the buying ledge, once again. It amazes me that there are some vacuums which cost more than my first couple of cars. 

McKinnon points our that the technosphere -- everything we build and make, our stuff -- is now estimated to outweigh all living things on Earth. In North America that volume of stuff is colossal and the irony is that the weather events related to climate change can wash it away in a flash flood or incinerate it in a wildfire. 

You have probably already noted that I'm writing this on Black Friday, a shopping spree which began in the United States but is now a pandemic around the globe. This is the day after US Thanksgiving, a day when Americans have supposedly celebrated God's provision through generous Indigenous neighbours. How did we get here?

I'm pleased to say that McKinnon's book is from the library, something I've been doing regularly because our home is awash in purchased books. I haven't exactly broken my addiction but I'm in therapy. He begins the books with several quotes about what we think we possess, what ends up possessing us, and how to be content. I've shared a few here. 

For some this is Buy Nothing Day. Could you do it?  

Earth provides enough for everyone's need

but not everyone's greed. 

                                     Mahatma Gandhi