The Servants of Having

AA wrote: Mycket sanna ord...

BB wrote: So true!

The Servants of Having

The more we allow ourselves to be the servants of having, the more we shall let ourselves fall prey to the gnawing anxiety which having involves.

                                                                                  Gabriel Marcel

Our society is built up around the gospel of consumption, and it is not an easy one to escape from. We work like madmen (and -women) to have a big enough income to afford at least one car per family, one house, one long trip abroad per year, to buy fashionable clothes and the latest Apple devices for ourselves and our children (however small). When we have so much and we still want more, we have become the servants of having.

What is the meaning of filling our homes with zillions of objects, which in the end we don’t even know how to use or where to place? What is the meaning of filling our lives with innumerable exciting experiences, nearby or in faraway countries, if we cannot rest peacefully within ourselves?

With every thing (however small) that we buy and that we don’t really need we use up a part of the Earth’s resources for nothing, and in the end all these unnecessary objects become a burden. If we want to be truly “ecological” and make the smallest possible footprint on our Earth, we have to drastically cut down on our consumption. 

In the end it is not what we have that defines us, it is what we are.