Today in school, my class met a rather inspirational lady. She was quite old, I'd say in her mid to late sixties, but she was stepping in for our usual Home Economics teacher as she was ill.
So this lady began talking to us about all kinds of things. Although she was teaching us what she was supposed to, every now and then she'd entwine a story from her own life that related to the subject. I personally thought she was a very good speaker, and kept me deeply interested. I gathered that she was the type of person who has saw many a thing, and is humble about that very fact. She seemed to want to share herself with us, even though it was our first meeting with her.
There was one thing in particular that she said which I could relate to so very much. She said, "I buy experiences, not material possessions I don't need." We were on the subject of shopping ethics and were discussing how we as consumers, consume so many things that we don't need. Beforehand she had told us that after she took early retirement, she decided to travel the world in order to experience new things.
Anyway, I thought what she said was bang on the nail, and represented so much of what I believe. What she was saying was that she buys moments; real life memories and experiences that will live with her until the day she dies. I find that spectacular. I'd rather buy experiences than a product from a shop shelf which I probably will never need. I think in our modern culture, we're brainwashed into believing that the only way we can achieve happiness, is to hoard up our houses with material things. We're told to consume, consume, consume until the huge void in your life gets filled up. But you see, it's never going to be filled with material goods. Experiences are the most important thing you and I have got, and I think too much of us are taking them for granted.
It's people like the lady I met today that I feel give our race a hope for the future. I find the way in which man can treat and decieve man can be completely and utterly shameful. The way businessed and governments try to turn us into puppets on their strings.
She sounds like an experienced person. (Get it?)
ReplyDeleteRemember though, that one can also be manipulated into buying experiences too.
That is, don't ever think you can go up to a merchant and purchase an experience from them. (In North America, we call those tourist traps.) Yes, you're spending money, but you are the one who is creating the experience, not them. You don't even always have to spend any money at all to get an experience. I'm not saying to avoid spending money on experiences, but realize that you're buying the opportunity to make your own experience.
I used to be really materialistic, placing great value in amassing collections of books, CDs, videos, etc. I would always value the ownership of a thing over an experience. Not anymore.
ReplyDeleteLooking back, and having gone through various hoarding and purging phases in my life, I see that I now possess very little of what I used to own. Yesterday's valued possession is tomorrow's trash.
It hit me once that possessions are really experiences in disguise. In other words, the value in owning a book is in the experience of reading it. Any possession that doesn't carry experiential value in your life is just clutter.
Materialism, as an end in itself, is an attempt to make permanent what cannot ever be permanent - because ultimately you die and lose it all. :-)