A couple of weeks ago I was really feeling sorry for myself because I had managed to dump my brand new iPhone 6 in the toilet. It was a goner despite my greatest efforts to dry it out. It ruined my day. Maybe even ruined my weekend. I was very unhappy with myself; for being greedy and having to splurge on the latest and best model, for being stingy and not buying insurance, and for now having to spend even more money now on something that I considered essential to my daily life.
Then I ran across this excellent article online "When Bread Bags Weren't Funny" and felt even worse about myself. No, I felt better. I felt more relaxed about being patient and waiting to spend the money to replace my phone. I felt less distressed. It's just money. It's just a phone.
The premise of this article is about how as Americans we have so much wealth today that we forget how life was even a generation or two ago. We laugh at the idea that one might use bread bags to cover their shoes because they might not own a pair a boots. We forget that owning even one pair of shoes was a luxury. For MOST of the country, not just a small percentage of unfortunate.
“In every generation, we forget how much poorer we used to be, and then we forget that we have forgotten.”
I have been guilty of teasing my mom for keeping old butter and cool whip containers to store leftovers in instead of buying tidy new Gladware containers that stack perfectly in the cupboard. I'm sorry for this.
We are a blessed generation. Or are we? The more we have, the less thankful we are. This article was a good reality check. It makes me not only want to purge and streamline my possessions, it makes me want to carefully evaluate any new purchases I make. It makes me want to question what I consider to be truly essential.