We pay homage to our stuff, and wait longingly for updates and new releases like a bunch of love sick techno groupies. The more technologically advanced, color coordinated, light activated, motion sensitive, computer linked the better. We scuttle from one stuff bender to the next glutting on excess, consumed by our own self-indulgence. 

What would happen if—don’t panic we’re just hypothesizing—what would happen if we didn’t upgrade this time and we lived with what we have? That means no new fangled cell phones, no flat screen, no leather lined, self heating car seats. What would happen if we had to live without that oh so important monthly toe scrubbing and nail fill? Would it kill us to paint our own toe nails? Would our children melt if they didn’t get another gaming system because the new one, “Has better graphics”, or this one actually, “Makes the children move instead of sit on the couch”.  Holy cow did you say move? Well then, let’s buy three! I’m going to let you in on a long forgotten secret. In the olden days children moved on their own. They didn’t have to be motivated by an electronic game; they just went outside and played. That’s right, in the olden days we actually went swimming, played tennis, baseball etc. We didn’t pretend to do it in our living rooms with a wand and a TV screen.

H-E-L-L-O am I reaching?

We are ridiculous. You know it’s true, and I don’t want to hear a single, “Ya but” from any of you. Let’s be honest. It’s about priorities. We prioritize our time, and our money and we will always invest where our heart is. “As a man thinketh, so is he.”

As a society we are so in love with our stuff that we have thrown common sense under the bus along with the old fashion values that made this country the greatest in the world. Well the writing is on the wall. The affects of our foolishness are all around us. Educationally we are lagging behind most other industrialized nations, our children are fat and lazy—that’s right I said it, not only that, they live a lifestyle of entitlements. They believe they are entitled to what ever their hearts desire and if it’s not served to them on a silver platter then they are abused, or at the very least neglected. We can’t follow our spiritual leaders because we are too busy following Sony.  We are on the fringe of an economic crisis that will reach into every one of our homes yet we continue to incur debt. We have been lulled in to a carnal security that will actually lead to our destruction and still we slumber.

The diagnosis? Cell Phone Psychosis—a momentary loss of mental clarity created by the seduction of wealth even if it is false wealth, the belief that more stuff creates more happiness and importance even if it is only self-importance. The desire to strut our stuff and impress the world with our affluence, even if it is paid for on credit  and even if we are chained to our debt for years to come.

Time to wake up!

It is time for security—financial, spiritual and nutritional.  It is time for peace of mind—the kind that comes from knowing that we have separated ourselves from the world and its many distractions and have started to listen to God instead. It is time to experience the satisfaction of simplicity and honesty.  It is time to be our best selves apart from the masquerade of our temporal acquisitions. It is time to take a brutally honest evaluation of ourselves and to admit that we are guilty without following up our own admission with justifications for our actions.

We must relieve ourselves of our debt, focus on acquiring  personal storage of essential items that will sustain life and give comfort, and we must look to our spiritual leaders for direction and follow their counsel.