I find myself easily caught by the enticements of secular consumer culture: new cars and tables and shampoo all do make me feel much better about myself, and even provide a more secure sense of my false self, but this self is fleeting. It needs to continue to be upheld by neverending amounts of stuff.

One of the other stay at home dads, Ted, was a lawyer. He worked at a firm downtown and had graduated from U of M law school. Ted keeps up with seven of his fellow classmates all of whom moved to Chicago and got jobs at big law firms. All seven of them either have a drug/drinking problem and/or are divorced. But they all drive nice cars and have plasma TVs.

How much of what I buy do I truly need? How much of our lives are spent working for empty stuff that doesn't satisfy on any level?

A poet, Andrei Codrescu, had a short piece on NPR's All Things Considered. While I am always pondering these ideas, this piece spured yet another reflection on them. You can read his commentary HERE.

be well,

Chris