It looks like some decent weather might be slowly heading
our way. A little, consistent sunshine would be nice though I know we need
rain. So spring is springing.
Winter
was a bit of a trial. Christmas was awful. It’s the aftermath that frightens me
and it’s almost the same at Easter. It seems the future of our economic
survival is down to how much we spend at festive times and we always need some
thing don’t we. The media wait with baited breath or is it bait breath to announce
how well we all did for society via the holiday spend up.
We don’t get
any prizes for spending so much and we are still subject to the cuts and
management goal post shifting and re-working of our contractual obligations.
More work for less reward. If the shops have a bumper festive take do we
benefit? No, not really.
It’ has
taken a long time but I am beginning to think that it is all “the stuff” that
hurts us most of all. It is true nothing last as long as it used (old bastard
in the room lol) and a wagon wheel biscuit is smaller than it used to be. The “stuff”
is letting us down. The novelty of acquisition has paled and the cost of our
collective greed is becoming clearer to see with each days passing.
Do we
have to keep on buying so much junk just to keep the economic wolf from the
door and international banking systems from collapse? Even with shrinking
values and inbuilt obsolescence to keep us coming back for more, the jobs a bad
‘un. It is busted and needs fixing.
I have
some “stuff” of course. It isn’t much and most of my big spending lol, goes on musical
equipment, tools. I am about to buy an I Mac so I can run a modern version of
Logic, the music production software. Luke has been using it for a while now
and loves it. Ah, but do I need it. Actually yes! I need to keep up a bit in
terms of music technology and it is a very efficient, cost effective purchase.
Well that is my excuse and it seems we’ve all got one when it comes to the big
purchase. I can work with what I have but you might be surprised how elementary
my music production set up is.
Even when
I am buying the tools of my trade there is a part of what I think is slightly
warped working class legacy that works in me. Some times it is for good and
some times not. It is a thing that often makes me wait until the bargain is
gone because I often question what might seem an extravagant and unnecessary purchase
even when it is not.
I recently
saw a TV program about Asian immigrants living a destitute life here on the
streets with out the right to work and with out a way back home.
One guy
featured had a family back home and when his parents died they inherited
everything including a little land. He saw no point to going back to nothing. The
family were neither rich nor very poor by local standards. When they saw
footage of their family member in such distress they immediately said he must
go home to them where he would have a place to live, a clean bed, food and “our
love”. That sounded wonderful to me and provokes a re-evaluation of what it is
that I really need
What a
step up this would be for any one living in the streets and how different it
might be for the man in the film to be home with all his basic needs covered.
How different would life be for all of us if those very basic needs could be met
for all?
Most of
us have too much stuff and the truth is I don’t think I need much more than him
or even any more at all. I have to admit I didn’t see this so clearly in the
past.
I’d rather
have time than “stuff” and we never know how much time we have so I am going to
convert some stuff into a little cash (and it will be a little), spend as
little as possible with a very few treats now and then and, try to get back as
much time as I can. The other aim is to do the things I really want to do and
nothing I don’t want to do. It won’t be easy but I am not alone judging from
recent discussions with quite a few folk of the same mind. Perhaps time is becoming
“ the new black”, an essential accessory.
Among my
friends and colleagues there is a growing reluctance to maintain the things
that seemed so necessary not so long ago and to continue to add to the mounting
pile of discarded consumables and other trash. The green life style brigade has
and is making a challenging and valuable contribution to the debate over a sane
and reasonable approach to life in a time when so much that we took for granted
only 20 or 30 years ago, is under threat. By the way I am not preaching or
trying to convert any one to any thing at all. You do what you like. You will any way just as I am bound to. Just
don’t expect a Christmas card or Easter egg from me, ever.
As the
legend on a friends kitchen wall proclaims, “ The most important things in life
are not things”.
