Consumerism & a Nation of Shoppers

Consume - to eat or drink - to use up, expend.
Consumer - a person who acquires goods & services for his or her personal needs.
Consumerism - a high rate of consumption & spending as a basis for a sound economy.
Built in obsolescence - deliberately limiting the life of a product in order to encourage the purchaser to replace it.

I don't see shopping as a leisure activity, I've got more interesting things to do. I don't need to buy things to make me feel good. If I do need or want something I shop around on the internet & look at sites like Which to get reviews of the product & then get the best price I can - often on line. When I buy something, other than things I am going to consume, I expect it to last a reasonable length of time. I want quality, design, functionality etc etc. I also want what I buy to give me pleasure.

The idea that we should all be buying "stuff" to create our economy seems basically flawed to me.  Our economy would be more reliable if it was based on the production of goods & services that people wanted & needed. There is so much "tat" around that no one needs. People no longer expect clothes to last, so they tend not to be well made. People are not prepared to pay the price for good food, they want cheap food, regardless of the impact on the livestock, the land & the people who produce the food in emerging nations.

I have to shop to live my life. Personally I keep the amount of time I spend shopping to an absolute minimum. I do sometimes "go shopping" but I quickly get to the stage where I think "there is nothing that I want to buy that is worth this...." Coping with the crowds of people & the queues just isn't my idea of fun. Why are all these people not at work? I go home & do something much more enjoyable.

I shop to live. I don't live to shop. Perhaps if more people did that they would have more fulfilling lives.

Synch / Sink

I have just bought an all singing all dancing Samsung Galaxy S4. I've had it for 3 weeks now and it is beginning to understand me. Like a puppy, it may take me a while to fully train it to understand who is the alpha female leader of the pack. It still doesn't reliably respond to commands. I will perservere though.

One of the things the very helpful Geeks at Carphone Warehouse, (see my post of 5. 5. 2012), have done is "synch" me. God knows what that means, S/He in her infinite wisdom hasn't revealed that to me yet. A far better word to describe the process for me is sink - As in sinking feeling.

I don't know how many times I have been back to the shop to have something explained, but it is a lot. I know all of them quite well now. (I feel they may even offer me a G&T at some point). Fortunately it's just round the corner in Summertown & I can walk there. I suppose if I had sat nav enabled, the phone could tell me where to go. Fortunately I'm not senile enough just yet to have forgotten. The day may well come though, so I'd better find out how to download / upload it.

The thing is, that unless you know the right questions to ask, or are happy to spend the rest of your life just playing with the phone until something works, the whole process is very time wasting. I could easily sink under the volume of knowledge the Geeks posess. I do glaze over & although I take notes that's no guarantee I will be able to do it by myself.

At some point both my phone & I may be "Synched". It will probably then take over what's left of my brain. I will be remotely controlled. My friends and family probably won't notice, except that when I'm dementedly wandering & lost somewhere the phone will probably tell them where I am & they may come & fetch me - Or not as the case may be.

Anyway - this is yet another Blog in praise of Carphone Warehouse Geeks. What would I do without them. The one I've seen most, Rob, works 6 days a week. How on earth does he remain so cheerful & helpful in the face of people like me? A medal is not enough.

Co - Dependency & the you you could be.

A friend of many years came to lunch today - yes you D......We talked non stop for nearly 4 hours. Among the topics of conversation was marriage & how men / women cope with the end of it. She is separated & I am widowed.

I haven't seen her for 3 - 4 years & she had just made the break, I was fairly recently widowed. We agreed that we have both changed enormously. She looked terriffic, fit, slim, attractive, smartly dressed. We both think that we are much better able to cope on our own now & would be reluctant to give up that freedom & independence to live with any man. We are confident in our ability to cope with most things in a way that we weren't when we were married. We are also financially independent, so we are lucky.

That doesn't necessarily preclude any relationship. We just wouldn't want to live with a partner again. We would just like to have someone to enjoy doing things with. A solitary meal in a pub isn't much fun & going to the theatre, the pictures, an exhibition or gallery is much better if you have someone to discuss the experience with. But then that could just as easily be a woman!

We agreed that we think that we are now the women we could always have been, but not while being married & in my case a mother. It's interesting, I really hadn't thought about it before today. Part of your individuality, the freedom to be, gets lost.

The co - dependency of a marriage undoubtedly has huge benefits if you are lucky enough to be married to a good man as I was. D..... wasn't so lucky. I'm not knocking it, or in any way diminishing what I had. I wouldn't have changed places with anyone. It wasn't perfect, what is, but it was mutually sustaining I think.

I just think that it's a bit late in life to find myself. So I'm going to try to enjoy it.

The clothes you stand up in.

I went on a fortnights walking holiday to the Pelion Peninsula in Northern Greece. We flew into Volos, a military airport with very basic facilities for tourists. Sadly, I arrived safely, but my luggage didn't. It became obvious very quickly that my suitcase wasn't going to appear. I literally had what I stood up in - walking gear, fortunately including wearing boots. I also had a bumbag with documents etc. My husbands suitcase did arrive, but at that time we didn't mix our things between two cases. So he had everything & I had nothing.

I only relate this because of the unimaginable numbers of people who are now also fleeing to a strange country, with nothing. They don't arrive in the comfort of a modern aeroplane. They are exhausted & terrified - In fear of their lives. They are sick, hungry & dehydrated. They don't have the comfort of a modern apartment with every facility to stay in. I had money & managed to buy a dreadful sundress, flip flops & knickers - eventually. (We were staying in a very remote rural area). Fot a while I wore a pair of my husbands Y fronts which was a very weird experience. I coped, with the help of some kind people in one of the apartments & a travel rep who did her best to reunite me with my case. Eventually I returned to Gatwick where it had been all the time.

Although I can empathise to a certain extent with displaced people, I doubt any of us, in this cosseted world of plenty most of us live in, can really begin to feel what the lives of refugees is like. My life has never been threatened. I have never wanted for food & water & a place to sleep & call my own. I have never been seriously ill or hurt without enough medical help. I have never seem members of my family or friends be brutally killed or die needlessly.

My family have had free education & health care, jobs & an income. I have been blessed & so have most of us, although many don't appreciate it. Relatively few people in our "world" don't have the basics.

So we do need to really try hard to understand what our fellow human beings, wherever they are, are suffering in this world of plenty. We do need to do something about their plight. We do need to get off our backsides & shout from the rooftops, so that politicians & leaders really hear our voice. We have the technology for instant communication around the world. We should use it to say enough is enough.

Conflict

Psalm 2
Why do the nations conspire,
and the people plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take council together,
against the Lord

Psalm 10
Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
In arrogance the wicked persecute the poor -
let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.

For the wicked boast of the desires of their heart,
those greedy for gain curse & renounce the Lord.

Psalm 36
Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in their hearts;
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
For they flatter themselves
in their own eyes
that their iniquity cannot be
found out and hated.
The words of their mouths
are mischief & deceit;
they have ceased to act wisely & do good.
They plot mischief while on their beds:
they are set on a way that is not good;
they do not reject evil.

This is the physical wall between Israel & the West Bank. There isn't a photo of the  political & psychological wall & it's much harder to pull down.


I'm not a Christian in the normal sense. I believe in spirituality & a moral code. I just happened to hear a bit of this morning's radio service & a psalm was quoted. That led me to look for it in the Bible. That led me to these. I don't know when they were written, but it seems to me that they have great meaning in the world as it is today.

http://time.com/3091932/yazidi-iraq-isis-obama/ The Yazidis do believe in God as do Muslims. What does that make ISIS who are Hell, (I chose that word deliberately), bent on annihalating the Yazidis?

Life's Little Pleasures

What should come under this heading is something less mundane than my pleasures this week. The carpenter has been & done my skirtings & built a cupboard to hide all the electric wiring for surround sound stereo the previous owner "kindly" left in the sitting room. Simultaneously the decorator has been sanding & oiling all the ash woodwork in the house. That will all be finished on Monday.

That means the window cleaner can come on Wednesday & thoroughly clean all the windows, inside & out - A ray of sunshine in every sense. They obviously haven't been cleaned for years & are covered with a film of sawdust from the kitchen fitting & skirtings. I will be really pleased not to have to look through the layer of grime & not be ashamed of dirty windows.

I'm waiting for the cleaning company to give me a date to deep clean the house. It's going to take 2 people the best part of a day. The bathrooms alone will take ages. But I will have sparkling clacium free taps - at last.

Then, oh joy, oh bliss, I can finally sort out the cupboards in the corridor & kitchen & hopefully remember where everything is! The kitchen surfaces are currently completely covered with china, glass & various ornaments. Having a completely finished kitchen is great. It only took 27 weeks & 3 days!

Whilst not being particularly houseproud, it will be nice to feel the house is finally done. It's only taken a year!

What will I do with myself now?