Saturday, February 02, 2008

Too Much Stuff

I want to direct you to The Story of Stuff. This is a 20 minute film about ... all the junk we acquire.

It's about all of the stuff you have around you. It's about my computer and your chair and the books I read. It's about your house and my clothes and the cars we drive.

We have too much stuff, I think. I have spent a bit of time in recent years attempting to rid myself of some of the stuff I have thoughtlessly accumulated. Most of it I was sorry I bought; some of it I don't even know how I obtained. Or why, for that matter.

Stuff collects dirt, wastes money that might be put to better use, wastes time, energy, and resources. Sometimes I look at all the "sitty-around" stuff I have in my house and wonder why I need it. I really *don't* need to collect Department 56 figures and houses. Would my life be incomplete without that collection? Probably not.

I have no idea what resources are wasted in making such things. All of this stuff ... we can live without it. Can't we? If we're not careful one day we might have to.

You can read an article about The Story of Stuff and how it came to be here if you want.

Also, I had a bit of trouble with the video loading; I'm on a DSL connection. In case it takes a long time for you, too.

3 comments:

  1. I've seen this video. It presents a very sobering topic in a very clever way. I was going to link here to a post I wrote about traveling light..in fact, I think it had this video's link in it, but can't find it. Guess my tags aren't as specific as they need to be! Anyway, I will refer you to my post today...it's about getting rid of stuff.

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  2. I *love* this video. It so clearly puts it in persepctive to me. I just finished reading "Affluenza" and it was a sobering view of how we are all trained to buy, buy, buy.

    It is so true that we've gotten ourselves on a wheel and it's time to jump off! Shannon

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  3. I hope that eventually this society learns to live without stuff and to value what truly matters in life. Like people. I wonder how long it will take for that to happen? Thanks June and Shannon for your comments!

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