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vogue, good to have you back
yes, I agree with you. It's all in our mind, and often our mind is all cluttered up - like our lives, homes, relationships. We need to air them OUT..............
posted by
Greenfields
on September 5, 2008 at 3:01 AM
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skye08, materialism is an important issue
which just doesn't go away. I am, at this stage in mylife, trying to right-size - keep only what is essential in my life. Giving away what I don;t need and others can use brings me great pleasure.
posted by
Greenfields
on September 4, 2008 at 8:27 PM
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Pat B, actually my exprience is that most people
with very little, want a little more and not necessarily to be at the top. However, getting a little more sometimes almost next to impossible.
posted by
Greenfields
on September 4, 2008 at 8:19 PM
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benzinha, how interesting
I too am surprised that the poor in India don't react more violently - Hinduism teaches people to accept and not wantmroe than they have. Ofcourse all this is changing. And, we cannot expect the govenrment to do much. Besides acountability, they don't seme to have the wherewithal to do it. Which is why private citiizen and corporate action is so needed.
posted by
Greenfields
on September 4, 2008 at 8:18 PM
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This is a very interesting post. When I was working in my incarnation as am international attorney I was that woman with the $3000 Gucci bag. Now, three years later, I am a writer, make next to no money (as yet) and during the summer in Turkey wear nothing but a few bikinis, no shoes (save when I go out) and two alternating sun dresses. So much to answer the question: do I relly need this? No, you don't. What's important is what you do and think.
posted by
vogue
on September 4, 2008 at 3:02 AM
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I have been pondering this thing we call materialism
As my husband and I are walking this path of transition and I am faced with what am I going to do with all this "stuff" he has packed in boxes and doesn't use and will never use, life "stuff" is in my face. Indeed, watching those here on our southern coast in the US, having to leave all they have behind once more, and I watched all the nursing home patients being moved with all their belongings in a bag on their lap, we are not defined by our "stuff". We as a civilization need to learn to see the "soul spirit" of the body and the richness of another's soul is not what they have bought, wear, drive, or live in. If we are fortunate enough to have the ablility to be more comfortable in this life journey, we should make sure that others comfortable also.
posted by
skye08
on September 3, 2008 at 9:14 AM
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There's more than one kind of poverty. The abject lack of what you need
to survive in the world is the obvious one. The stone heart of an uncharitable, unfeeling wealthy person who luxuriates while letting others do without the basics is a bottomless pit that cannot be filled. Many cultures deplore such things, and condemn the rich. It's odd, isn't it, how some people with very little only want to become the selfish bastards at the top of the food chain?
posted by
Pat_B
on September 3, 2008 at 5:32 AM
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I have been both rich and poor, so I have given and received and wanted
and passed on, all of the contradictions.
You just thank the gods for each state, believing that they all teach you something about yourself and then about society at large.
I remember the frantic spending of one husband's co-workers as they stole money from lawyers and dentists and old people with real estate scams back in the 80s. These scams helped to make the Ameican economy crash at the time. It was a wave and I sat on the beach and watched the surfers.
I attended national seminars given by my husband where he taught, as regulations changed, how to get around the newest regulations designed to stop the thievery. They all spoke sarcastically at these meetings and rode in limos and spent lavishly and belittled everyone and disrespected all things. It was fairly horrid.
But, then the government let it happen again here in the US, collapsing finally just this past year, so, I cannot understand why the poor don't rise up as in old France and cut off some rich and powerful heads. They may some day.
The very old rich are different from the newer rich, they seem more charitable in America. Maybe they will become so in India.....sending money to Mr. Yunus' bank for making more micro loans!!
A woman here in America did the same all on her own, micro loans for African women from a group of middle class friends that she formed and she is accomplishing wonderful things. She is poor or rather low middle class.
posted by
benzinha
on September 3, 2008 at 1:05 AM
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