Am I becoming Amish?

That’s a question that I don’t get asked a lot, but one to consider.  I have grown a beard, have a strange urge to name any future sons that we may have Jedidiah and Jehoshaphat, and am selling one of our modern modes of transportation.  I also believe that I could rock a straw hat and have always considered going rogue Amish before my daughters hit their teenage years.

We recently drove through an area with an Amish population and I have to admit that I am fascinated by their way of life.  It’s like they hit the pause button years ago and are content with living what is a seemingly simple life, but is in reality a very difficult existence.  Most of us marvel at their commitment to specific lifestyle choices and don’t know why they do it or even how they can do it.  They probably look at us in the same way. They probably marvel at the lack of thought that goes into our lifestyle choices and why it seems that our spending urges go largely unchecked and why marketers and the media strongly influence the choices we make (not to mention the Joneses). 

For a second, imagine that you are Amish and presume to take an outsider’s perspective looking into our modern lives.  To me, it appears that we are not consumers, but instead are being consumed.  In our consumer culture, we are bombarded with messages implying how shallow our lives are without the latest and greatest thing; whether it be an electronic gadget, a car, or the latest in a series of New & Improved laundry detergents.  If we’ll just fork over the money our lives will be so much happier and fulfilling and we will be the envy of our friends.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to walk around smelling Spring Fresh? 

No matter what your hobby may be you are not at the top of your game without the latest gear.  For example:

Golf – aren’t you going to get the latest technologically advanced driver so that you can hit the little white ball 2.7 yards farther?.... or the putter that’s got a face insert that contains a rare element that was just discovered last year? 

Running- your shoes don’t have tubes, zigs, or lunaglide…what are you thinkin’?...Barefoot running is the new fad, why are you still wearing those old tubes, zigs, or lunaglides?  
It’s a never-ending parade of dissatisfaction and discontentment!

We are driven from many different angles to increase our consumption…marketers, media, family, friends, people we don’t even know, and our own perceived needs ( to feel worth, happiness, etc.).   We spend a lot of our time focusing on what we want, what we don’t have and how we are going to get it as soon as possible.  We can easily spot these qualities in our children.  They plead with us for the new Barbie with a straight face; as we focus on the fact that they have enough Barbies under their bed to represent every man, woman, and child in North Dakota.  Unfortunately, even though we can spot it so easily in our children, we have a very  tough time spotting it in ourselves and in our own economic decision making.   

We can see the evidence in the long-term historical trends toward increased consumption, such as the average home in the U.S. growing from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,422 square feet in 2009.   Yet, we have difficulty seeing our own long-term trends towards increased consumption.  

I have to admit that it’s easy to be blind to it.  I mean, everybody’s doing it and we aren’t in danger of being on the show “Hoarders” yet, so it’s all good.  We get into a groove living a certain way, constantly buying goods and services to fill the God-shaped hole in our lives.  Knowing that the things we have bought in the past do not satisfy anymore, yet hoping that the things that we want so badly will.  We buy that new Mercedes because we CAN (or more likely, because we CAN’T and we want people to think that we can).  We buy the newest gadget because we CAN, not thinking that it will be the equivalent of an 8-track player in 15 years.  Then we use our newly purchased tablet computer to do what?  That’s right, go shopping online!  We rack up thousands upon thousands in credit card debt because we just can’t wait any longer.  Some of us can’t even park our cars in our two car garage because it’s loaded with stuff that we’ve yet to make room for in our mini-storage that’s also full of stuff!  When anybody downsizes their lives in any aspect, whether it be in home size, number of cars, etc. we tend to think the worst and wonder what in the world is going on because they are not playing the game anymore.  I mean, don’t they get IT?   I’m really surprised that the Amish don’t laugh hysterically at us as we drive by in our shiny new rides going 60 m.p.h. to nowhere!

 

Although there is no danger of me becoming Amish, our tendency to over consume is one of the many reasons that we are living this one car experiment.  It’s not an easy thing to step back and evaluate your lifestyle choices, but I hope that this has helped you evaluate your lifestyle along with me.  Ask yourself….are you a consumer or being consumed?