stuff

I have never accepted the notion that you keep a Cadillac or a yacht or anything at all, except perhaps for convenience. I have always had a quarrel with this country not only about race but about the standards by which it appears to live. People are drowning in things. They don’t even know what they want them for. They are actually useless. You can’t sleep with a yacht. you can’t make love to a Cadillac, though everyone appears to be trying to… I think the great emotional or psychological or effective lack of love and touching is the key to the American or even the Western disease…

James Baldwin

from: James Baldwin and Margaret Mead on Reimagining Democracy for a Post-Consumerist Culture at Brainpickings.org

 

3 Responses to “stuff”

  1. Richard

    Thanks again John.

    I need a “prod” now and then, to come back to the basics of LOVE and COMPASSION.
    When I gave up the Audi A6 Avant, I think in a way IT owned me?
    It owned a part of me that is “Self”
    It’s funny that on my desk is a poem from Derek Walcott “Love after Love”
    I welcome the “softening” and the “letting go”as we embrace the eightfold path which was beautifully used for the model of “Buddhist Economics”
    Love Richard -:)

    Reply
  2. Jonny Lovett

    Recently purchased a cheap Mazda 2 for running around to work and back and I am very pleased with the 60 miles to the gallon, low insurance and £30 per year TAX credentials it boasts, only I forgot that my teenage kids will be unable to travel in it. It is far too lame for them APPARENTLY!

    It would seem that Buddhist values not inherited.

    Reply
  3. John

    Good point Jonny
    I can double the value of my Volvo by filling it with petrol.
    My 14 year old daughter is increasingly reluctant to be seen in it, but I’ve gotten away with it so far by insisting that it’s on the verge of classic status!
    See you soon.
    John

    Reply

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