We Are Consumers

My Home

Hello again, it has been awhile.  This thing called life keeps getting in the way of things I want to do.  It is a good thing for the most part, but someone please tell me where does the time go when we aren’t looking?

For some time now I have had something – as my grandmother would say – stuck in my craw and have the need, well maybe just a strong desire, to share it with you.  It has become obvious to me that we are consumers.  When I say we it is mostly referring to westerners because that is who I am most familiar with, especially Americans from the United States.  And when I say consumers it isn’t definition number one; “One that consumes, especially one that acquires goods or services for direct use or ownership rather than for resale or use in production and manufacturing” that I am referring to, it is definition number two; “A heterotrophic organism that ingests other organisms or organic matter in a food chain.” Okay, not literally but metaphorically we are consumers, definition number 2…well maybe a little on the literal side as well.

When my husband and I got married (almost 33 years ago) his parents lived in a very nice, rather expensive neighborhood, the best in town.  They have since moved away, but we had the opportunity to visit this neighborhood a while back and I was shocked.  The homes were rundown, the once beautiful yards were neglected, and to be honest it wasn’t a place I’d want to live now.  Even my own neighborhood is disheartening.  We moved in to this lovely new neighborhood, with shiny new houses, decent looking yards, and smiling neighborly faces.  Ten (just) years later some homes are in disrepair, some left unattended from three outrageous storms, green organic matter growing on the sides of some homes, parking on the grass instead of the driveways has left deep muddy ruts that spill out on to the street.  It is as if some insect has begun to eat away at a beautiful plant.

This past summer, after having to clean up an exorbitantly messy garage at my mom’s house left by others, my husband was heard telling one of my nephews; “A real man leaves a place better than he found it.”  This is not the only mark of a real man that my husband has, but he was and is very right.  A real man, a real woman, an excellent person doesn’t consume everything around them, they leave a place better than how they found it.

Detroit

But I have been looking around my circle of influence and see people just consuming the life out of everything they have.  They buy a house, it’s lovely, and they are so excited and set everything in place.  Before long things start to break down, walls get scratched or scuffed, the siding gets mildewed, the excitement wears off, and nothing is done to fix or improve things.  Let’s face it, the second law of thermodynamics (order to disorder) is always in play.  But we don’t want to take the time to fix things, or improve things, it’s too much trouble.  We’ll just live here for a while, run the place down to the point we don’t like it anymore, and buy a new house in a different neighborhood.  Who cares if we leave the neighborhood looking crummy, we aren’t going to live there anyway.  Have you seen picture from Detroit lately?  There was a whole lot of consuming going on there and it is as if a swarm of locusts swooped in and devoured everything.

And I ask, when did we stop leaving a place, our home, our yard, our park, our city, our county, our state, even our country better than we found it.  I think of our founding fathers and those that came before us, taking a place with nothing and building an empire.  The brave people who decided to move west to a wilderness never experienced before, making it home.  Have you been to Charleston, SC?  Old buildings made to stand for a long time, cared for and kept up.  Do we build anything like that today?  Most things today are built to be consumed.  And even our relationships are being consumed then tossed away.  Friendships that last as long as I’m getting something out of it.  Or marriages that last only as long as my needs are being met…consume then move on.

Charleston, SC

I want to encourage all of us to think on this; leave a place better than how we found it.  Not just our homes and community but where we work…yes, leaving work today a better place than when you came in this morning, what a concept. This extends even to our relationships. Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  (4) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  Instead of consuming everything in sight, using it, getting out of it all that I can and then moving on, I want to leave every place better than I found it.