"But capitalism tells us the substitutes are the real thing. The only way the wheels of capitalism continues to churn is if we believe it." I was just having a discussion with a friend about this last week. What would happen if all of a sudden folks didn't have their addictions?
One thing I keep reminding my husband, is how happy we were when I was on a beginning teacher's salary, and he was making hardly anything doing some contract work. We ate delicious lentils 4x/wk, my wedding bouquet was from the supermarket with an extra ribbon... we are the ones who can choose to bring joy and peace to our lives by being the people we are, not with the things we buy.
We love the needs/wants/bullshit categories, AND we need to constantly remind ourselves to stay financially sane in this consumption/addiction driven society.
Your wedding bouquet story is so poignant, Naomi. The average American wedding costs $30k. I've been to weddings that cost much more. It's obvious to anyone else if they thought about it: there is no correlation between the cost of the wedding and the quality of the marriage.
The wedding industrial complex is a perfect example of a secondary satisfaction substituting for a primary satisfaction. People spend an inordinate amount of time and expense on projecting a weekend fantasy when what really matters is the myriad of day-to-day unsexy and unglamorous ways we have to care for each other.
(Naomi - maybe it's this sort of thinking that keeps me single hahaha)
"But capitalism tells us the substitutes are the real thing. The only way the wheels of capitalism continues to churn is if we believe it." I was just having a discussion with a friend about this last week. What would happen if all of a sudden folks didn't have their addictions?
One thing I keep reminding my husband, is how happy we were when I was on a beginning teacher's salary, and he was making hardly anything doing some contract work. We ate delicious lentils 4x/wk, my wedding bouquet was from the supermarket with an extra ribbon... we are the ones who can choose to bring joy and peace to our lives by being the people we are, not with the things we buy.
We love the needs/wants/bullshit categories, AND we need to constantly remind ourselves to stay financially sane in this consumption/addiction driven society.
Your wedding bouquet story is so poignant, Naomi. The average American wedding costs $30k. I've been to weddings that cost much more. It's obvious to anyone else if they thought about it: there is no correlation between the cost of the wedding and the quality of the marriage.
The wedding industrial complex is a perfect example of a secondary satisfaction substituting for a primary satisfaction. People spend an inordinate amount of time and expense on projecting a weekend fantasy when what really matters is the myriad of day-to-day unsexy and unglamorous ways we have to care for each other.
(Naomi - maybe it's this sort of thinking that keeps me single hahaha)