Debt Prison

Christmas has become a profit field day for corporate entities who’ve managed to convince consumers that happiness is just one more credit-card-swipe away. Just another purchase, we are assured, and we’ll find ourselves robustly thrilled with pleasantry knowing our neighbor’s children can’t boast louder than our own. As a society on a perpetual path of narcissistic self-worship, is it perhaps time to stop our debt-based consumption and look inward? What really matters in your life? Is your happiness really based on the ability to purchase goods and services beyond a measure which you can afford? Of course it isn’t.

The rich man is not he who obtains the most but he who requires the least.

Teaching ourselves and our children that life is not measured by material possessions is an arduous task in modern America. However, if we are blessed with good health, a roof over our heads, and a full stomach… then we have absolutely nothing of which to complain. Think of all the struggle and pain exerted by our forefathers in providing us with such a nation.

What would they, our fore bearers who sacrificed so much, think about our obsession with the latest gadget? Somehow I doubt my grandfather would be pleased. For it was only a few short decades ago that he share-cropped to put food on the table. He slaughtered a pig each fall and shared it with neighbors in the community. He drew water from a well and light came from a lighted wick. Folks got physically ill and they died. Such was life in America just a few short years ago.

We must not get so caught up with material possessions that we ignore the true beauty and gifts of life itself. This beauty and these gifts are all about us in their splendor. All we have to do is stop, recognize them, and attempt to comprehend just how privileged we are to simply be sitting here breathing in life.

It is for these reasons that we should not bow down to the pressure of a consumption driven society. Life is simply too short to exist within it… while simultaneously ignoring its magnificence. And when we become focused on consumption, and take on debt to satisfy that consumption, we drive the magical quality of our very existence beneath our feet.

Avoid debt this Christmas of 2009. How blessed we are to exist and live in the land of plenty! Don’t destroy the blessings of life attempting to satisfy the forces around you. These tormenting forces will come and go, but the beauty of life is always about us. May we learn to embrace it.