If the best things in life are free, why do we keep trying to buy them?

I read an article today, yesturday and several days before that about simple living in America and it has captivated me so I decided to share it with you. It was not a long article at all, but in just one short page, it captivated my attention in an idea that seems to be so contrary to the culture that we live in today, the idea that we don't need to shop all the time, that we dont need to spend money to feel great, but that we can have a feeling of joy in being content with having all of our needs met and not finding self worth in material things. I found it so intriguing that the writer of this article, an actress in Los Angeles, could live this simplistically while walking the red carpet for everyone to see. She takes a radical step towards fighting materialism that I have never heard taken, but that I must respect. She tells how she doesn't buy anything new but only things that have been used by somebody at some time, that she will pay more money to fix something that is broken, then to pay for something new. This struck me at first as somewhat silly but the more I thought about it, I thought how addicting buying new things can be. When you buy a pair of new pants, you automatically think that it is necessary to buy a new shirt to go with it, and suddenly you are sucked into this web of materialism before you even know it. I thought more about how there are some many times that I desire to buy something new and that I justify to myself how much I need what I am about to purchase instead of thinking about what I already have and how much I already have.

This reminded me of a Donald Miller book that I read a while ago called Through Painted Deserts. In the book Miller has taken a road trip and at this point in the book has stopped at the Grand Canyon. He has just hiked the Grand Canyon and attended a "Sunrise over the Canyon" Easter service and is reflecting on this simple life:

"Imagining the service reminds me again that life is more than clothes and cars and a new flavor of toothpaste, that it is community and creation and beauty and humanity. There is a certain serenity in life, after all, and once a withdrawl is felt at having left the lies behind, a soul begins to fell at home in its own skin."

Miller goes on to talk about the withdrawl that you feel when you have not bought something new in a long time. He talks about how he walked into a gift shop and almost bought at license-plate key chain with his name on it and how he talked himself out of it because he didn't have any keys to put it on, and because he was only really buying it because he wanted something new as a way of feeling different about himself. I remember when I read this that it struck a deep chord with me like the article about simple living in Hollywood.

Our culture thrives on materialism. We are told by advertisments constantly that we need to buy new things, and that if we dont buy new things that we are missing out on the great life that we could be living. We are told that the car we have isn't good enough and needs to be replace, that the clothes we wear are old and we need new ones, and that by purchasing all of these things all our dreams will come true. It causes us to think that even the thought of an asthetic life focused on something other than materialism sounds crazy. Its so sad to me that we have given up a life that could be so much more free and wonderful, for a wardrobe that we have been told we could not live without.

I know that the phrase that I used in the title of this post is quite cliche, but i feel that it really is true. That the things that should be treasured the most in this life, have been traded in for items on a shelf that can be bought, and then replaced after a short period of time for something else that will make your life complete. In the musical Rent, one of the songs is called "what you own" and one of the lyrics goes "when your living in America, you're what you own." I dont want to believe this lie anymore. I hope you won't either.