Confessions of a Consumer Addict

admin November 25th, 2009

Christmas is a reminder of how Jesus taught us to live. For Christians the holiday is about peace and joy – the advent of a new way of living – a way of living without a self-serving ego that is focused on material things.

It’s really hard to see that happening during the Christmas season in modern America. Sure we hear all the words: peace, joy, good will to all men, etc., but our behavior does not seem to reflect the intent of those words. How come?

I only need to look at myself and how for years and years I mouthed those very words and thought that I had the “Christmas spirit” – while at the same time being totally stressed-out, impatient with the crowds, worrying that our party or family get-together would be perfect, being obsessed with finding the right gifts, and worrying that I wasn’t spending enough on the right people, and piling up bills – right up until Christmas eve.

After all of that it was really hard to have much Christmas spirit (unless it was a spirit I drank) much less have a life-changing or life-enhancing experience. It was exhausting, and I was not much fun to be around.

It had become all about meeting my, and everyone else’s, high expectations for a highlight-of-the-year celebration, and giving and getting a lot of stuff.

Not at all what Jesus would have wanted from me for his birthday present, and I didn’t want it from me either!

That began to change a number of years ago after I started a daily prayer and meditation practice. That was the beginning of a journey of finding increasing peace within myself and the beginning of appreciating the world around me for what it actually is at this moment. It has been such a relief!

I remember the first time that peace and appreciation really hit me: it was at the mall, of all places, well before I shifted into a simpler way of living, and it was at the height of the Christmas shopping hysteria. I should preface this by saying that I hate shopping, especially Christmas shopping, and I was not looking forward to this trip at all. But my daughter needed to see Santa Claus, so we waited in line (another of my least favorite things) to see him. I was fully expecting to have my usual bah humbug attitude fully engaged, but as I stood there I was overcome with the sheer joy of seeing the kids, the decorations, and the busy shuffle around the shops. I had totally forgotten about myself and was focused on what was actually happening around me rather than my usual self-absorbed attitude and the way it has always filtered everything in a negative way.

Then my attention shifted to a deep, genuine feeling of joy and contentment – deeper than I can ever remember having before – and it seemed like the world changed in that moment. And the feeling stuck with me for the rest of the day.

The results of months of meditation and prayer had snuck up on me. The practice of intent focus and awareness and of praying during that intensity of meditation was helping me appreciate life for what it was rather than my tortured feelings about it. I was beginning to be able to give up some of my internal negative dialog that often separates me from other people and the world around me, and I think I was also beginning to have a little insight into what folks were doing and feeling rather than my normal superficial observations and stereotypical impressions.

It is said by life-long meditators that although the meditation itself can be a wonderful thing (although not always) it is the long term results of meditation in our mental and emotional attitudes towards people and life in the regular work-a-day world that are really important. Over the long term it is to help us develop a rich, loving compassion to replace our egocentricity and cynicism. I have found that to be true.

This practice has become the keystone of my faith and life. Even though I am only just beginning this emotional journey and still have a very long way to go (few would say I have become a paragon of virtue) it has saved my life. For the first time I really do believe the Spirit is with me – at least some of the time – because I have made a space for the Spirit to enter.

I also think that especially for someone like me, as well as many others who were not born with the milk of human kindness running through their veins, this is the kind of faith practice that really makes it possible for us to live true Christian simplicity as I’ve described it on my website, www.christiansimpleliving.org.

I believe that it also makes it possible for me to go into this Advent and Christmas with real joy as well as the awareness to cut through the consumerism that Christmas has become, to find the truth of the message that the King of Peace is coming, and to fully participate in his birthday celebration in a deep and simple way.

If you would like to find more joy and peace in your life for this Christmas season, you might want to give it a try. There are a number of resources listed here.

I hope you have a truly joyous Advent and Christmas celebration.

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• Living More Simply , Meditation and Prayer , Spiritual Development
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admin November 24th, 2009

When we begin to think about Christmas, some of our first thoughts are about joy, family, gifts, and all-around good times. But then come thoughts about the anxiety and stress it causes. The American Psychological Association published a study in 2008 that found that 80% of people in the study expected a stressful holiday season.

Such a shame for a celebration of someone who came to get rid of that kind of stress!

Of course, not surprisingly, the stress is caused primarily by the expectations of our consumer culture for excessive gift giving, partying, and our personal expectations for a ‘perfect Christmas’ as perhaps defined by Currier and Ives. Mental Health America, http://www.nmha.org/, suggests that finances are the primary cause of this anxiety followed closely by bad memories of Christmases past, too many holiday activities, overindulgence (I’m shocked), and loneliness.

It would be easy for us to rant about the commercialization of Christmas as I have many times in the past, but really, if we are serious practicing Christians, that should be of little consequence to us except to feel sorry for those caught up in the craziness.

As Christians we don’t have to do it that way because we know better. We can celebrate in a much more meaningful way that brings depth to our faith, joy to our families and friends, and a great deal less stress and debt.

Instead we can happily focus on making our own celebrations real “Jesus birthday” celebrations, getting rid of the stress and anxiety of the whole thing – and we don’t have to worry about consumers and their enablers.

But getting there takes some effort and doesn’t come instantly. My experience is that it takes a number of Christmas seasons to gradually work our way into a more reasonable, happier birthday celebration. I know of few people who managed a big change all in one year, so RELAX, take it a step at a time starting with a few small steps, and add a few more steps each year.

Another key principle is do not ADD simplicity practices to what you are already doing – that will only make things worse. Instead, get rid of one or two practices that make you crazy during the holidays and REPLACE them with one or two of the ideas below.

Some folks think we’re being Grinch’s to talk about giving up things at Christmas, but in fact changing just a few crazy-making practices can make for a much more joyful and meaningful Christmas that will be remembered for a long time – because it is more personal and loving.

And the “giving up” can be wonderful in and of itself.

Picture this: less, or no driving in heavy traffic, no careening through crowded stores or waiting in long lines when you’re short of time, no stressing-out over which thing will be the “perfect gift”, no longer traveling to too many places, and no horrendous credit card bills in January… aaaaaaah!

AND the best thing is that the result of all this “giving up” is getting to have more time with family and friends. Time to give them what they really want – you – and your love and caring. It gives you time to actually savor the meaning of Christ’s birthday and his life, and what a difference it has made in your life.

A wonderful way to begin this holiday change process, if you don’t do it already, is to start a daily meditation and prayer practice. Take the time no matter how busy you are. A serious, regular practice can help you focus on what’s really important in your life and in the lives of those you love. It can help screen out the craziness we are heir to during the holidays and let us slow down and deeply appreciate what the holiday (the word comes from ‘holy day’) has done for us. I’ll get another post out in a day or two on some ways to approach this.

Basic Jesus Birthday Principles

1. Shifting from gifting to giving

The “Whose Birthday is it Anyway?” project on the Alternatives for Simple Living web site, http://www.simpleliving.org/, makes the excellent point that if we are actually celebrating Jesus’ birthday, then we should be giving him what he asked for or what we think he would really want. Remembering “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” we should be giving the presents to those who need it most – families of people who are out of work, those who may be losing their homes, those in need of support during the war, people in institutions, and people around the world living in poverty or suffering injustice, instead of giving so much to people who don’t really need our gifts and sometimes don’t even want them.

We often buy pricey gifts for people we don’t see often or don’t know well out of duty, tradition, or guilt and end up giving them things they don’t want or need, when our good wishes, love, and our presence is what they want most. This wastes money and goods that folks in real need could use well.

Sometimes we ‘overbuy’ gifts in order to impress friends and family or assuage our guilt. This can set up a competitive game that goes on for years and even generations through which we all lose in the end. Especially with kids. I’ve often seen two and four year-olds completely overwhelmed by a pile of gifts resulting from an orgy of keeping up with, or better yet, ahead of the Jones’. Who can give a child the bigger, better gift so the giver can win the envy sweepstakes. This is destructive for the kids and for our own souls.

A thought: plan to give your kids just three gifts – the number that Jesus got – and hide them so the kids have fun finding them. Then explain the meaning of the three gifts.

Carefully review your giving list so you have a very good idea of each person really needs or deeply desires even if it turns out to be an unconventional gift.

We can give ourselves by providing services and our time instead of a sweater that a person might never wear: if you are an accountant, prepare someone’s taxes; give a summer’s worth of lawn mowing to grandparents or other elders; if you’re handy with hair and makeup, give a facial and hair-do; do some painting and wallpapering; a gift of weekly story reading to a child, etc.

With the money we save in buying fewer and less expensive gifts we have the ideal opportunity to give to those who have the greatest needs. Many families now give to charities in the name of their family members as gifts and give a card explaining the gift to the family member.

The best way to do this is to carefully research potential charities for their needs and make those donations first before you begin your conventional shopping.

2. Preventive Shopping
Nip your automatic over-shopping urge in the bud at the very beginning of the season so that you don’t over-buy, over-spend, and over-give while on “shopping auto-pilot.” We can all do this by practicing “Preventive Shopping.”

Over the Thanksgiving holiday make a preventive shopping plan with the whole family so that everyone knows and agrees to the new ground rules and why they are important. Decide how you want to change your gift-giving and celebrating this year, and be sure to include the kids so they can learn that Christmas isn’t about the getting, it’s about the giving. Your plan should include a gift giving budget that includes conventional gifts as well as donations, crafts, and your time BEFORE ever going out to the mall.

This holiday planning is also a great time to introduce your kids to the actual story of St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra as the origins of Santa Claus. They will gain a whole new, life-long perspective on giving rather than getting. Take a look at the St. Nicholas Center web site http://www.stnicholascenter.org which has a lot of games and activities to help kids learn about St. Nick and the real meaning of Christmas – the younger the better.

Practice “targeted shopping” instead of grazing at the mall. After making your holiday plan and preparing a gift list, determine which stores have those specific items, then go only to those stores and buy only those items: no impulse buying (“Oh, wouldn’t that be great for Terry? I never would have thought of that!”)

Avoid the globalized big box stores despite their heavy advertising for extremely low cost items.

Money isn’t the issue in our new approach to Christmas!

Instead buy from local stores, crafts people, and service personnel whenever possible. This limits your contact with dangerous shopping areas like Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, etc. which will limit unnecessary impulse buying (leaving more of your cash for donations to those who will really need and appreciate it) and helping to build-up your local community and neighbors.

Hint: in general, buying gift cards is not a good idea. A very large percentage of the money in these cards goes unused and wasted – money that could have been used in a much better way. AND bank-branded gift cards are notorious for their high fees and expiration dates which make many of them an even worse deal.

3. The Quality of our Gifts

When giving gifts we should be very conscious of the earth and social and economic justice issues world-wide:

What is your gift made of? Non-renewable resources or those through the manufacture of which much pollution was generated? Are they made from natural or renewable materials or do they help you live a greener life?

Try giving a do-it-yourself gift box of natural household and personal cleaners, perfumes, soaps, etc. to introduce someone to a new world of more responsible day-to-day living?

Is the gift a fair trade item? Does the manufacturer or retailer support unjust manufacturing, management, or other social and economic practices?

Give a different kind of gift to lift someone’s spirits or quality of life – a course or workshop on meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, or a weekend retreat.

Are the children’s gifts non-violent?

Have a joyful and stress-free Christmas.

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• Consumer Culture and Economics , Coping With Consumer Culture , Fomenting Change , How To's , Living More Simply , Psychology , Spiritual Development
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admin November 11th, 2009

Now here’s a really interesting dilemma – there’s nothing like the threat of death to focus the mind!

The health care reform debate has raised a lot of issues for us, but one of those issues has been bothering me for some time. It’s a little reminiscent of the divisive and bogus ‘death panels’ issue, but it is very real for me.

I retired several years ago, and since then I’ve been plagued by a series of medical issues, all of which required very expensive procedures and hospital stays. When I was growing up in the late ‘40’s and early ‘50’s, none of these procedures existed and so, of course, there was little expense associated with them compared to today’s costs – and average life expectancy was somewhat lower than it is today – approximately 67 years in 1950 versus 77 years in 2001. Consider that in the mid-1800’s it was only about 50.

The more high-tech medical devices, procedures and medications are developed, the higher treatment costs go, and of course, the more we use these treatments, the more we all pay which is really the key driver for rising health care costs. It isn’t so much that doctors or pharmaceutical companies charge too much (which they sometimes do) it is that each incremental technological advance costs more than those before it, and unfortunately there is often a steep decline in the cost benefit ratio of these new technologies as each yields less and less improvement in our overall health status and life expectancy. So we are, in effect, paying more for less!

I should point out here that I worked for a number of years for a health care service delivery research agency, so I have at least a passing familiarity with the evidence base on these issues.

It is you and me causing this to happen. We can’t blame anyone else. We love these new treatments: anything to keep us alive longer, looking better, and as pain-free as possible! As with everything else in our consumer world, we want it all, and we want it now, preferably for free. So the medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies know they can make a fortune off our desire to live forever as we search for the fountain of youth. They won’t stop until we stop.

So here’s the thing: I know that God did not design me to live forever, nor did he ever promise that I would, at least physically in this world. He never even promised I would have a pain-free or disease-free life, and as everyone knows, he didn’t promise that I would look good either – Robert Redford relax! He made us to die and sometimes suffer, as distasteful as that may sound. Think of Jesus’ crucifixion – very gruesome and not uncommon at the time – and He was God’s son!

I also know that there are many people who cannot afford decent health care at all because costs for insurance and treatment are so high, a fundamentally immoral situation for practicing Christians. Christ, after all, was a healer and told his disciples to go out and heal.

And I know that every time I go in for one of these expensive procedures, regardless of how much insurance I have, I am helping to substantially drive up the costs of treatment and insurance for all other people. We are all doing this to each other.

So if I am helping drive up costs and thus keeping others from getting even the basic care they need, then do I have a moral obligation as a Christian simple liver, to titrate my own dose of treatment – to go without myself to lighten the burden on others?

Before you jump to the all-too-common response of “Of course, you must take care of yourself!” think about it a bit.

I recently had a cyst removed from a finger. Not life threatening, not serious, just ugly. It cost $10,000 in an ambulatory surgery center – that’s TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS for a little cyst on a finger, and of course I didn’t know the cost until after it was done. AND this was one of the least expensive procedures I’ve had!

This has caused me a lot of grief. I think it’s unconscionable. It has really left me feeling very badly about my misuse of what God gave me. My cyst removal was just not worth literally taking away treatment from people with serious illness and little money.

It also makes me seriously wonder how I should deal with more serious medical issues. Can I get around well enough without the $39,000 hip replacement? Maybe so. Can I do OK without the stents in my heart? Maybe so, especially since their efficacy and cost effectiveness have been seriously called into question for conditions such as mine.

Sure my body isn’t going to feel as good; I’m going to move around slower; I might not look as young and energetic as I once did, but this is the way God created me. He created me to fall apart and eventually kick the bucket whether I like it or not.

If I am going to live simply and out of love for others, then I really do have to seriously consider these things.

One Buddhist principle is that since God made us to suffer and die (as well as find peace and joy along the way) we should consider those ‘negatives’ as positives instead – as a good and just part of maturing and living life. To run in fear from every ailment makes for a pretty miserable, distracted life that actually prevents us from living well from an emotional, spiritual perspective.

The parallel between this Buddhist belief and our Christian tradition is that Christ told his disciples (paraphrasing here) that if they are to follow him they should be willing to take up their cross, suffer and die. Since we are all asked to be his disciples, then we should all be willing to do that as well.

Perhaps in the 21st Century that suffering and dying may be in terms of buying less insurance and using less health care than we think we’re entitled to so that others might be able to get the care they need to merely live. Maybe this is part of what simple livers ought to give up along with all the junk piling up in our homes.

What do you think?

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admin November 6th, 2009

Over the summer and continuing into the fall, a small group of folks from our congregation have been engaged in a study of “Sabbath Economics” which has been an eye-opener for many of us in terms of how we view and use our money and other resources, as well as how we manage our debt.

Sabbath Economics is a term coined by Ched Myers. a theologian and educator, who has written a number of books and articles on topics related to discipleship, and is a staff member of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, http://bcm-net.org/, based in California. He has authored a short book, The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics, which, along with a companion book by Matthew Colwell, Sabbath Economics: Household Practices, make up a very compelling Bible study on economic practices in the Old and New Testaments and how they can guide our faithful uses of ‘stuff’, money, debt, and human relationships today.

A thorough discussion of Sabbath Economics would take many pages in many posts, but to give you the gist of it, here is a part of the introduction from Ched’s book:

“At its root, Sabbath observance is about gift and limits: the grace of receiving that which the Creator gives, and the responsibility not to take too much, nor to mistake the gift for a possession. The economic implications of this tradition as it is articulated in the Bible can be summarized in three axioms:
1) the world as created by God is abundant, with enough for everyone – provided that human communities restrain their appetites and live within limits;
2) disparities in wealth and power are not “natural” but the result of human sin, and must be mitigated within the community of faith through the regular practice of redistribution;
3) the prophetic message calls people to the practice of such redistribution, and is thus characterized as “good news” to the poor.”

The two books together, explore both Biblical economic and social teachings and practices, as well as how they can translate into personal 21st Century financial and economic practices for us modern Christians, including what we do with our money, where we save and invest it, how we get into debt because of it, how we give it to others (or don’t), and how we can do all these things in loving, just, and equitable ways.

Let me tell you, it ain’t easy walking this talk!

There are some hard lessons here, such as incorporating the story of the rich young ruler into our own lives. Now here is a scary story for middle class Westerners not to mention those among us with a lot of wealth!

Along the way we discussed whether or not our money is invested in places where it will be managed in a transparent and socially just way while at the same time doing good for others rather than just making money for ourselves. Most of us probably strike out big-time on these criteria because our economic system focuses only on how much money we can make, not on how we make it. If we invest in mutual funds, for example, the vast majority of them only give you a glimmer of where your money is and what it’s doing and to whom.

We also discussed our debt (groan), who we owe it to, and how ethical those institutions are in their lending practices, not to mention the issue of how we got in debt in the first place! The question then became, “Do we want to be indebted to institutions or individuals who do unethical things to others (and maybe us too), and is it an acceptable thing to be in debt at all according to the Biblical record?”

Well for me – and I’m going to name names here (and probably get into trouble for it) – I had to examine what my bank’s (Bank of America) practices are and how my mortgage company (Wells Fargo) operates, and what policies they use in running their credit card businesses.

You may have noticed that both of these organizations have been in the news virtually every day, so it didn’t take a lot of research to find out that Bank of America is the largest issuer of subprime loans in the country with Wells Fargo not far behind. I believe that subprime lending is a fundamentally sinful practice because of the way in which these loans are structured and sold. As is now abundantly clear, those companies did tremendous harm to thousands of people with malice of forethought. The kindest interpretation I could give to their actions is that they were negligently greedy, failing to think through in a fair and rational way, the potential harm their policies might do in order for the brokers and executives to make their billions of dollars in profits and bonuses. The unkindest interpretation would be that they were thieves. Take your pick.

In any event, as a Christian who would like to practice Sabbath Economics, how could I continue to do business with either of them?

So based on my “extensive research” into these institutions I decided that I simply couldn’t patronize them anymore… too much blood in the streets… around the world!

There are alternatives. We don’t have to feed the monster. We can live our financial and economic lives by using institutions that aren’t as ethically challenged as BOA and Wells Fargo. So I went looking and found that my Credit Union had mortgages available at a lower interest rate than Wells was charging, and they don’t indulge in subprime lending, and they aren’t in financial trouble, and didn’t take any of my tax money to stay afloat: moved my mortgage!

BOA charges high interested rates along with myriad unfair penalties on many of their credit cards (charging the highest rates and penalties to those who can least afford it) in addition to their subprime mortgage business: Time for the scissors! Got a credit union credit card at a lower interest rate instead. Now we’re getting ready to move our checking account too.

There’s probably a local bank or credit union near you too.

A side benefit for me in all this is that the credit union is a small local institution. The staff there know me by name, and actually call – even when they aren’t trying to sell me something! It’s like my drug store just a few blocks from my home – a small, independent pharmacy where they know me by my first and last names. They often see me walking down the street on my way to pick up a prescription and have it sitting on the counter for me when I walk in. You might not believe that, but it is true. Local is almost always better.

Gotta’ say, it feels a lot better to be rid of the giant financial institutions and the damage they do to many people – with my money!

A year or so ago I decided to look at my mutual fund investments. I had everything in Vanguard, which I believe is one of the better fund families because of its low management fees and ethical management principles. But still, I knew that some of my money was going into companies that are not socially responsible, and sometimes in pretty horrific ways. So I took most of my money out and put it into MMA Praxis funds (formerly Mennonite Mutual Aid) where it does not earn as much as the Vanguard funds, but it does rigorously practice socially responsible investing in a fairly diverse portfolio. MMA Praxis calls this “stewardship investing.”

Now I don’t have to worry about supporting questionable companies that are polluters (bye, bye Exxon), or that practice unjust management or unfair and inequitable local manufacturing operations (bye, bye Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria), or that sell unhealthy products (Tah, Tah Philip Morris).

I still have to work on putting more of my money and time, to still better use, but our study group is continuing on, and with a little support, I may be able to take a few more steps toward living the Sabbath economics life style that Jesus preached along with the prophets of the OT.

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