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Wednesday 5 May 2010

Dear consumer,

You are so much more than that.  Yes, you have needs and wants and desires.  You feel insecure about things, you fear this strange little life that, though extremely safe from our perspective, still offers up death as an absolute 100% bona fide experience you're gonna take whether you're denying it or not.

And yeah, I know.  Out the other end, it is extremely safe, but that can quickly head into boredom because extremely safe also means extremely sanitised.

This is where the precariousness of life can hold some sort of exhilaration.  Nothing lasts forever.  Even good things that wend their way through an entire lifetime morph and grow and die and rebirth as they go.

This, this is a beautiful thing.

But even if we're uninspired by our lives - and geez, for how many people is it not, these days?  Have we ever been a more humourless, anxious lot? - that purchase you buy, the one you're dreaming out, it's not gonna fill the hole.  Just like the last one didn't fill the hole.  Do you remember what the last thing you bought was?  See how it's lost its lustre underneath all the other stuff that's also lost its lustre now it's sitting on your bench or in your cupboard?

But hey, this is a good thing.  Because it shows to you the limits of consumerism.  It shows  you what every wisdom tradition in the world has taught, that we are way beyond our riches.  Perhaps we are even made of stars.

"Consumer" just doesn't cut it.  You are way more than that.  But, you know that already.

You have enough.  You really do.  In fact, part of the problem is that you have too much.  Buying something else will not ease the pain.  It never does.

You have enough.    There is a beautiful, amazing expanse contained within this one simple phrase.  More satisfaction to be gained traversing through this plain than the next thing you're gonna buy could ever deliver.

[Pan out into long shot of something beautiful and delightful and exciting and nature-ish to ease you out of the 30 second slot into the next ad that will try to sell you something you don't need.  And which may very likely use long shots of beautiful and delightful and exciting and nature-ish things to sell it to you]

2 comments

  1. buying something will not ease the pain
    you're so right
    it never does

    unless of course you have a headache and you buy some disprin forte ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. All roads lead to.......

    Simplicity

    Remember when you thought of nuns or monks or hermits and thought how can anyone possibly live like that, without stuff, without sound, without people. And the closer you get to what you are searching for, the more it makes sense?

    ReplyDelete

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