<
https://freedium.cfd/https://medium.com/the-no%C3%B6sphere/what-if-you-did-not-buy-a-single-new-thing-this-month-or-even-year-3f94a86f1118>
"I love to tell people who come over to our place that the full-length mirror
in the entry is one of the things we 'rescued' from our building's…
waste
store.
Other items include a cat tree, a small shelving unit, some cooking pots and a
plant vase, all of which were in near-perfect condition.
Ever since our first rubbish find — which was the mirror — I look forward to
going down there, hoping to find something else we could use. But although I've
only become a trash panda recently, I always liked reusing stuff and had plenty
of pre-loved items. Growing up, many of my clothes and toys were hand-me-downs
as I was the youngest girl in my whole extended family.
For years, including when I was a teenager — the mid to late 2000s — this
wasn't exactly considered 'cool.' We were still largely enamoured with
constantly buying new shiny 'stuff' and sold on the idea of what it supposedly
means. (A
better you. A
happier you. A more
successful you.)
Then things started changing. Slowly.
Well, to be fair, in some ways, unchecked consumerism might be worse than
ever today.
But there also seems to be a growing awareness that, actually, you don't need
to — and, more importantly,
shouldn't — keep buying new shiny things all the
time.
If there's one positive thing that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic and its
restrictions on our usual activities, it's that it showed us simpler and less
material lives are not only possible but could make us just as happy. If not
more."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
