With the holiday season here, I've been thinking about our culture of excess. Thanksgiving and Christmas usually bring up quite a few frustrations for me, mostly with our tendencies towards gorging ourselves on ridiculous amounts of food, spending exorbitant amounts of money on things we don't need, and spoiling kids with tons of gifts that they probably won't be satisfied with.
I saw an ad yesterday for Walmart that said "Hurry! MUST HAVE gifts!" The list included a 72" flat screen TV, an XBOX, and The Call of Duty video game. Really?? Must have gifts??
What came to my mind was a childhood memory of reading Little House on the Prairie. Laura Ingalls and her siblings always got a new pair of knitted socks, a piece of rock candy, an orange, and a shiny new penny. They also got ONE extra special gift, like a handmade doll or a pair of ice skates. And the children were thrilled. They treasured those gifts more than anything. Laura's doll was the most special possession of her childhood. The kids, because they had so little, took perfect care of their possessions, so they lasted for years.
I'm not going to say I'm jealous of Laura's life of hardship on a farm without heat or cars. In fact, I really can't talk much in the first place, since I was one of those kids with tons and tons of presents. But I do wish we still had some of the ideals of minimalism and simplicity of that era. It's all too easy to fall prey to the brilliant marketing ploys of commercial businesses and advertisers. They know how to make us think we NEED things. It's tempting to want things I don't need and buy things that are just going to be thrown out in the next year.
I want to create a SIMPLE holiday season for myself - less stress, more meaning. I want to embrace MODERATION. Gifts, spending, decorating, eating. All of those are GOOD things... there's nothing wrong with any of them.
But even a good thing, once it becomes excessive, can turn into trouble.
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