So I just heard today about the environmental blogging thing that was yesterday. I guess those of us with two or three readers are a bit out of the loop. Coincidentally, I was thinking about posting this idea anyway. So, bully for me.
I've noticed a new tendency in myself which I think may have some basis for other folks as well. I spend periods of time reading magazines, renting movies, reading books, watching videos online (see recommendations below); this is my leisure intake time. Everyone has different ways of passive intake; tv and the ninternets, mostly, I imagine. But, after an amount of time, (all of us have different capacities), we want to DO something. Not just passively intake but express ourselves, somehow. Back in the days of cowboys and indians and hippies and renaissance bards and lonely shepherds, someone might pick up a guitar and sing a song, dance, draw, tell a story. Cool. When I get restless, lately, I've been noticing a new impulse that I have generally not enjoyed in the past; go shopping. Buy something to express yourself, a new piece of clothing, a new something to decorate your home, something to exhibit your taste and stylistic leanings. This from a person who fancies herself someone who has come to terms with her own self-confidence issues, at least in knowing that they will not be altered by buying items. Yet, there is still this idea that consuming is expression. Well, I'm here to rip the curtain aside and tell the world: "Consuming is just more intake". Small shards of self-expression exist in which shade of sweater you pull from the shelf, but that's it. Consumption is not Self-Expression. I think Doing and Making are very important ingredients in good mental health. You will never get that special feeling of accomplishment and connection from buying things.
Put down your wallets! Find another outlet. Remember anything you used to enjoy DOING? MAKING? BUILDING? Take a moment and turn off the tv, the computer, the cellphone, and just think about it. Remember? Great. Now look around and see what you have on hand. Look in the closet. Look in the recycling bin. Limitations are the mother of invention. You could build your very own monster in your basement with just what you have in the house right now. You can make an orchestra out of what you have in the kitchen. You can hatch great new ideas on the back of that junkmail envelope. Fix up your bike and go for a ride. You can put something together and walk outside of your house and meet people eye to eye and share. Remember?
{and if you must buy, go to second hand stores. Was that a nose wrinkle? I found a brand new pair of velveteen gucci pants at a second hand store for ten bucks. so...}
