God, I Just Love My Goblet! It’s the Best!
As a creative person in this world I struggle to justify choices I make sometimes. Am I just making more stuff for our consumption-driven culture? Does anybody care about handmade things? Am I living a meaningful life? What’s wrong with the things I already have? What does it matter?
I feel overwhelmed (constantly) by the fact that our society is a major contributor to over-consumerism. People have lost touch with where products come from and how they are made. Because our society is a disposable and temporal one, we fail to recognize real meaning in the objects we possess anymore. We are constantly being over exposed to by new trends and fads and forget about the atmospheric and good qualities with the possessions we already own.
While it’s difficult to tackle this problem on a global level, I believe a good start at solving this consumption problem is making small connections with the things we already have for making small transitions to a better – less consumer-driven – society. We cannot continue to dispose of items just because they are deemed unfashionable. Reconnecting with the things we hold an affinity for is an important step to reconsidering how we want to live.
Category: Anthropocene 2 comments »
September 14th, 2010 at 18:56
Interesting idea related to “you are what you eat,” or “we are what we live.” We have designed a disposable world and now, we have become disposable as a result.
September 15th, 2010 at 05:44
I, too, have some sacred objects but the reason they exist mostly in the china hutch is because of their heavy weight and fragility. (i.e. family china or glass bowls,) Would we be better served to invest in top of the line plastic “china” so that it could be loved more without fear of breakage.. Why not capitalize on the fact that they last forever as a reason to invest in them. Maybe ceramic plates should be used for BBQ’s and my snoopy plate from age 5 could be used every Thanksgiving. The ceramic could be broken and buried and become a better throwaway item.
Thanks for the post Ali.