We had some friends over last night.. They brought their 3 kids.. We cooked a little BBQ in the backyard. The BBQ was an iron plate pinched from my dilapidated old wooden framed, wheeled Gas BBQ. I took the plate and with the aid of a few bricks suspended it on top of a little wood fire.
I only cooked sausages, and with a loaf of bread, a bottle of sauce and a bit of coleslaw it was all ready, a nice meal. After we ate, I lifted the plate off and dumped it near the shed, we stoked the fire up and the kids poked pine cones into it for an hour or so. We sat around on chairs, a log and an old wooden box. We talked, drank too much beer, and the kids were filthy at the end of the night. A good time was had by all.
The cleanup was non-existent last night and this morning, the plate can sit in the corner of the garden gathering rust and dust until next weekend or the weekend after that. I'll burn it all off and scrape it a bit next time I use it.
It caused me, yet again, to ponder where we went so wrong. Too often, people are buying monstrosities like this:
It boasts :
After cooking on it, it has to be cleaned, fat has to be disposed of, it has to be covered and from time to time needs maintenance. Of course it comes with a warranty, a good idea given the number of parts, knobs, igniters and other mechanisms that it is adorned with. Needless to say it has a limited life as well.. Maybe 10 years? Maybe 15? What ever it is, it will eventually fail and require replacement.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that perhaps the BBQ above isn't owned by people, it owns people. It's a taskmasker, it keeps you busy when you use it doing tasks other than actually cooking, it needs attention, it wants to be preened and prissied about with. It wants to be stored undercover and under some form of tarp (which needs to be put back on each time you finish with it). You need to work hard to own one, at more than $2000 of post-tax dollars then (if you're a an average wager earner) you'll probably need to work for at least 3 weeks before you can afford one.
The BBQ is but one example, when we add on the range of other extravagant consumer items it wouldn't be hard to get the point where we can envision a household of items that keeps its Income Earners on an Unceasing Treadmill of Earning in order to repair, replace and upgrade.. and what little time they have after they've Earned would often be spent proudly cleaning and caring for their Parade of Possessions.
Of course on the odd occasion that friends would come over they can smugly wheel out their 6 Burner BBQ to a cavalcade of oohs, aahs and envious looks. The oohs and ahhs might last about 2 years.. until Peter Jones from down the road brutally pipes up with "Ha! still got that old GTX-PRO 6 Burner hey Tom? I just got the new GTX-PRO ES EFI 9 Burner with Infra-red Warmer, you gotta come over next week for a snag!". The world comes crashing down and that shitty old GTX-PRO6 gets wheeled out less and less..
The BBQ is but one example, our hapless Consumer Addicts have the same issues with their Car, DVD-Player, Television, Kitchen, Stereo, Computer, IPODs, Digital Cameras, CamCorders, Spa, Bathrooms, Game Console, Vacuum Cleaner, Furniture, Outoor Setting, Kids Bikes, Clothes, Microwave, Dishwasher, Heated Towel Rail, Family Holidays, Stove, Refrigerator, and their House itself. They work in order to own, but end up being owned by the things they worked for.
Happiness (as I'm slowly learning) can never come through possessions but rather it comes through the enjoyment of
Anything that detracts from our ability to pursue these aims needs to be removed, to a certain degree, from our lives. When purchasing a new "thing" one must give some thought to the long term consequences of taking on the ownership of this "thing":
I'm not advocating become a Zen Monk with nothing more than a wooden bowl and spoon, but rather checking out of the consumer mentality we've become so caught up in (over the last 40 years?) and getting back to the basics of happiness that I described above (which seem to be truer for me every day, maybe for other people the list might be subtely, or completely different?). We're surely no happier than people 40 years ago, yet we own so much more stuff and the more we own the more we have to work in order to keep, replace and maintain it.
Perhaps the more we own the more we seem to be owned. And.. as I've said in other posts, the less we want, the sooner we can retire.
I only cooked sausages, and with a loaf of bread, a bottle of sauce and a bit of coleslaw it was all ready, a nice meal. After we ate, I lifted the plate off and dumped it near the shed, we stoked the fire up and the kids poked pine cones into it for an hour or so. We sat around on chairs, a log and an old wooden box. We talked, drank too much beer, and the kids were filthy at the end of the night. A good time was had by all.
The cleanup was non-existent last night and this morning, the plate can sit in the corner of the garden gathering rust and dust until next weekend or the weekend after that. I'll burn it all off and scrape it a bit next time I use it.
It caused me, yet again, to ponder where we went so wrong. Too often, people are buying monstrosities like this:
It boasts :
- Stainless steel cooktop offers rust resistance, cleanability and cooking performance
- Stainless steel warming rack
- 240V rotisserie included
- Optimum use of stainless steel in all components for outstanding appearance
- Flow-limiting regulator for increased safety
- Integral slide-out smoker drawer, positioned over one burner
- Two powerful stainless steel side burners
After cooking on it, it has to be cleaned, fat has to be disposed of, it has to be covered and from time to time needs maintenance. Of course it comes with a warranty, a good idea given the number of parts, knobs, igniters and other mechanisms that it is adorned with. Needless to say it has a limited life as well.. Maybe 10 years? Maybe 15? What ever it is, it will eventually fail and require replacement.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that perhaps the BBQ above isn't owned by people, it owns people. It's a taskmasker, it keeps you busy when you use it doing tasks other than actually cooking, it needs attention, it wants to be preened and prissied about with. It wants to be stored undercover and under some form of tarp (which needs to be put back on each time you finish with it). You need to work hard to own one, at more than $2000 of post-tax dollars then (if you're a an average wager earner) you'll probably need to work for at least 3 weeks before you can afford one.
The BBQ is but one example, when we add on the range of other extravagant consumer items it wouldn't be hard to get the point where we can envision a household of items that keeps its Income Earners on an Unceasing Treadmill of Earning in order to repair, replace and upgrade.. and what little time they have after they've Earned would often be spent proudly cleaning and caring for their Parade of Possessions.
Of course on the odd occasion that friends would come over they can smugly wheel out their 6 Burner BBQ to a cavalcade of oohs, aahs and envious looks. The oohs and ahhs might last about 2 years.. until Peter Jones from down the road brutally pipes up with "Ha! still got that old GTX-PRO 6 Burner hey Tom? I just got the new GTX-PRO ES EFI 9 Burner with Infra-red Warmer, you gotta come over next week for a snag!". The world comes crashing down and that shitty old GTX-PRO6 gets wheeled out less and less..
The BBQ is but one example, our hapless Consumer Addicts have the same issues with their Car, DVD-Player, Television, Kitchen, Stereo, Computer, IPODs, Digital Cameras, CamCorders, Spa, Bathrooms, Game Console, Vacuum Cleaner, Furniture, Outoor Setting, Kids Bikes, Clothes, Microwave, Dishwasher, Heated Towel Rail, Family Holidays, Stove, Refrigerator, and their House itself. They work in order to own, but end up being owned by the things they worked for.
Happiness (as I'm slowly learning) can never come through possessions but rather it comes through the enjoyment of
- relationships (kids, family, friends, colleagues)
- creativity (building things, making things, fixing things, art)
- endeavour (applying ourselves to tasks, work, challenges or situations)
- learning (new skills, new ways of thinking)
- simple tasks (taking pride in washing up, mowing the lawn, developing a rythym for these tasks, using them as a therapeutic mechanism).
Anything that detracts from our ability to pursue these aims needs to be removed, to a certain degree, from our lives. When purchasing a new "thing" one must give some thought to the long term consequences of taking on the ownership of this "thing":
- will it contribute to my happiness?
- will I need to work hard and earn more so that I can replace it?
- will it contribute to my cost of living?
- will it deliver me more time to be happy or take away from it?
- why am I buying it (because everyone has one, because I "bought" the marketing, because I think it will make me happy)
- am I buying it so I can "fit in", to be part of a "club" or to keep up with the Jones'
- a smaller, plainer, older car.
- a smaller house,
- less appliances
- less entertainment equipment,
- less furntiure (and more forgiving furniture like solid wood, rugged, rustic, ages with grace, less pretentious).
- no dishwasher
- simple floor coverings
- simple outdoor furniture, a few logs, a wooden box or 2.
- old books instead of DVD's
- wooden blocks instead of GameBoys
I'm not advocating become a Zen Monk with nothing more than a wooden bowl and spoon, but rather checking out of the consumer mentality we've become so caught up in (over the last 40 years?) and getting back to the basics of happiness that I described above (which seem to be truer for me every day, maybe for other people the list might be subtely, or completely different?). We're surely no happier than people 40 years ago, yet we own so much more stuff and the more we own the more we have to work in order to keep, replace and maintain it.
Perhaps the more we own the more we seem to be owned. And.. as I've said in other posts, the less we want, the sooner we can retire.
