I Want Too Much! I Eat Too Much! Too Much!

“We had everything.”

That’s a line, or at least a paraphrase to a line in the new movie, Don’t Look Up, a political satire starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio.

In the movie a planet killing asteroid is headed to the earth, and finally at the end, DiCaprio’s character makes this statement.

We really do have everything, but yet the human condition always wants more.

Our bountiful consumption during Christmas and the holiday season is quite the stark example of just how much we have. It’s really too much.

We eat until we are over satiated. We eat until we’re bloated. We give and receive presents we could easily eschew. And yet we wake up tomorrow hungry and with designs on what we can consume next!

How many of you utilize the same bath towel during the week?

I mean, you’re just drying off a presumably washed body. What’s the problem with that? You could use that several times, right?

But then how many of you don’t? How many toss your towel each day and luxuriously enjoy a fresh one each day?

That sounds crazy doesn’t it? A fresh bath towel is a luxury!

But if you take a moment and look around. If you take a moment to read a story. If you take a moment to consider a charity, you may find how real that luxury would be in a country with very little fresh water.

There are countries, there are cities for that matter, in this world struggling for drinking water, and yet we never really consider it.

I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I’m simply considering my own self, and my own conspicuous consumption. I know, at least in the back of my mind, so many could not even come close to what I have.

Heck, as I’m writing this I’m toggling back and forth between emails and the like, and as a result I’m currently shopping at Macy’s. I’ve just ordered some darn cheap wine glasses as well as a puffer vest.

Do I need any of this?

No! I could very easily have made do without any of it. I would have been just fine. But yet I consume.

And so, is it any surprise we don’t think about having drinking water, or clean clothes, or a clean towel as a luxury?

We think of them as a standard of our life. We think of them as a guarantee.

Did you know it’s estimated there are 800 cars per 1000 people in the United States?

That’s almost 1 vehicle per person, including children!

You’re thinking, “well is that really so bad? We are a big country.”

China is a big country. They have ¼ the autos. India is pretty big. They have 60 million people. But they only have 28 cars/1000 people.

You want to get down into some African countries, like Chad, Rwanda or Sierra Leone?

You’re talking about six or seven cars/1000 people.

Bet you didn’t think driving that beat up, 2003 Civic was a luxury, did you?

As you enter this new year, try and be happy for what you have. Maybe resolve to appreciate your place in the world. While it seems pedestrian to you, it’s a pedestal most will never reach.

Meanwhile I’ll let you know if these stemless glasses turned out to be a good deal.