Holiday Commentary

Aaron and I went to Meijer and Target yesturday in and amongst our errand running to get some little projects done before the baby comes. Anyway, I was shocked to see isles upon isles of Halloween paraphenalia and get this - Christmas stuff too!! Halloween used to mean just buying a pumkin, some candy, and making a fun costume with whatever we had around the house. In fact half of the fun was the creativity of making/finding a costume. When we went trick or treating we would often use pillowcases to collect the goods or I remember we also had these plastic pumkins my Mom had bought. Now I see lights and skulls and talking corpses and all kinds of crazy stuff, some of it not cheap at all!! Do people really buy all this crap? Is halloween going to turn into this massive consumer event as well? Aren't corn stalks enough anymore? And how do they get off putting out Christmas stuff in September? Who is thinking about Christmas already? Whatever happened to the sacred change in department stores that happened the day after Thanksgiving, when like majic, overnight all displays turn from turkeys to santas? Call me stubborn but I will not be buying Christmas cards until I at least see some snow and Aaron and I will continue to stick to our policy of trying to make as many of our Christmas presents as we buy. We aren't tight fisted - trust me when I say we spend a lot on making presents but it's just that we think that Christmas should be something more. Maybe I am getting old and nostalgic but I think that all this pressure to buy buy buy just isn't what it should be all about.

I love my country - don't get me wrong. But our consumer attitude I think sets us up for unhappiness. If we are told everyday that happiness is found externally - with a new car, a bigger house, or another new technological gadget (don't remind me of the new camera at this point) how can anyone ever be content? There is always something bigger and better out there. That and the sense of entitlement that comes with it. That somehow I deserve to have cheap gas or new clothes every season. So much so that we rationalize killing people and other heinous acts all in the name of cheap gasoline. I say let the prices rise to what other people pay in the rest of the world. Oil is a rare (and getting rarer) commodity. We should pay it's market value and then maybe people would stop buying Hummers. And yes we own a Jeep Cheerokee that gets maybe 17 mpg but I also only drive it when I have to and we only own one car. Aaron and I usually take the bus to school and work. Besides I bought it from a friend because it was a good car that I knew would last. It currently has over 166,000 miles on it without a tick. My brother's Jeep has almost 250,000 miles on it without major problems. And our car is paid off and we are not enthusiastic about gaining a car payment again.

So I am hardly exempt from the consumerism. I like to shop, I own a big car, but I don't bitch when gas prices go up, I cheer! Because I know that I drive less when gas is expensive, demand for economical cars goes up, less pollution happens because people are driving less and driving more economical cars. Whats the problem with that?

This is just one of my rants. Call me a sentimental, idealistic, bleeding heart liberal. I'm proud to be one. Hike gas prices! Feed the hungry! And so one... but at the same time, I am hardly going to leave all my worldly goods to live a monastic life in a cave somewhere. Heck, I want to be an engineer for many reasons, one of which is because it makes good money and we'll be able to send our kids to college some day so they can make good money.

How do I sleep at night :) Just as long as there aren't Christmas lights in September to keep me awake - I do ok.