While I do have an iPod, and bought my younger son one for Christmas, there are a lot of things I do without, by choice. I live in a smaller home, drive well-used vehicles rather than buying new ones every couple of years, and don’t buy a lot of clothes or shoes. I don’t wear makeup very often at all, and rarely get a haircut. I don’t do manicures or pedicures very often. My hands are always busy in the garden or on the keyboard anyway, and I wash my hands a lot with the dogs around, so manicures are wasted on me, as I almost instantly destroy them.
I like this article because it expresses awareness of what we’re consuming. I think that is an important theme for this new year, to really think about how we live and what we’re doing here. And why we do it. I haven’t really made any resolutions for this year, other than to simply live more intentionally. I think that is enough.
At some level all of our preferences come from conscious choices, even if those choices are limited. Part of me would really enjoy having an iPod, for example–an item I cannot justify when there are bigger bills to pay. I could say I can’t afford it, but in truth, when I continue to pay my mortgage and electric bill month after month, it is because I really prefer the comfort of a home with light and heat more than the promise of another gadget. (Not to mention how much I prefer not to have the waste of one more item in my life doomed to an untimely obsolescence.) When I think about it that way, I feel less like the last living person without white cords coming out of her ears, and more like a responsible provider who is extremely fortunate to have a roof over her head and a warm place to sleep.
The holidays often blur this sense of priority because so many of us feel compelled to buy things. We are expected to buy things. Sometimes we are accused of being Scrooges if we put up a resistance to buying things. In this spirit, it can be hard to discern what our real preferences are–especially when we genuinely do want to buy and give gifts that honor the people we love. Like many people, I bought quite a few things this year. But I still like to remember that there is a line I do not want to cross, I have important reasons not to, and I do not need to feel deprived to stay on the safe side of that line.
Rather than feeling sorry for myself when I know I need to put my wallet away, I can feel good about it. On many levels–environmental and emotional, as well as financial–it is my preference.
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