Friday, October 06, 2006

Consumerism and traffic

Today as I drove to pick up the kids from school, I did some thinking in traffic on the freeway. I was completely surrounded by tractor-trailers. They are always there, but usually I only peripherally notice them. Today they had my full attention. I felt the rumble as one would drive past me. I watched the black smoke come out as they drove. I slowed down as one would merge in front of me, then change lanes because I did not want my little car in between two of those big semis.

I was thinking about what those trucks haul. I'm sure a huge majority is just cargo to take to the stuff-marts, waiting for people to show up, buy junk they don't need, take it to their overstuffed homes, then perhaps one day end up at the landfill. What a waste! All the way around! And I have been more than guilty of participating in this cycle. But now, thinking about how nice it would be if everyone could be satisfied with just a little less. If only people would put less importance on their "stuff" and more importance on their relationships and on time to just sit and BE. How sad that those trucks, causing traffic and polluting our air, our hauling stuff that people will have to move around, clean, store, protect, apologize for, argue over. I don't pretend to think that all of it is useless junk, but I'm sure quite a bit of it is. That is really depressing.

5 comments:

Jenny said...

Great post!

It is amazing how deep that culture of consumerism runs. Trucks to haul the stuff, warehouses to store it, stores to sell it, people to buy it and so little of it is needed. Not to mention that the stuff you actually do need can often be bought used because too much stuff has been discarded!

Gavi said...

Oh I know, jenny! When I was ranting to a friend about the whole truck thing, she said, "yes, but if people stopped buying all that stuff, just think of the people who would be out of work."
Well, I'm sure some would have to go into new lines of work, but at the same time, if people weren't buying all kinds of junk they don't need, they also wouldn't HAVE to work so much to acquire it.

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