I Don't Need Shoes: Thoughts on the Epidemic of Materialsim

I don't need shoes. I don't need shoes, because I just ordered a pair of custom molded Birkenstock clogs (perhaps the best shoe ever created) from work, and hardly had to pay anything for them - one of the perks of working for a podiatrist. I don't need shoes, because I have at least 32 pairs in my closet - most of which I never wear. I don't need shoes.

I just want shoes.

And so, here I sit, at midnight. Online. Shoe shopping for shoes I don't need, and definitely don't need to be spending money on at this particular time in my life. So I'm not even really shopping to buy. I'm shopping to covet, which is worse. I just look at all the shoes I could be buying, and grow increasingly discontent with the 32 plus pairs of shoes I already have to choose from. It's ridiculous.

Our culture is partly to blame. We live in America in the 21st century. Everyone wants to make a buck, and the media is no moron. Marketing gurus have expertly tapped into brainwashability of our generation and spoon fed us the "can'tlivewithoutit" lie. Electronics, cars, clothes - you name it, we want it. On the other hand, humans (i.e. you and me) are mostly to blame. People are greedy, by nature. We just want stuff. We want to keep up with the Joneses...to have what they have, and then some. It's no new thing. I mean, heck - look at King Solomon. If you want to talk about someone who had alot of stuff...that guy had everything. So whether it's kingdoms or cows or shoes, people have always wanted to hoard stuff, and lots of it.

So, anyway, on the same website where I found the shoes I now think I just have to have, (but never would have know I had to have, had I not been shoe shopping tonight) I ran across a sticker. It reads "Protect me from what I want." Brilliant. I want to buy it, and put it on my wallet, to curb my frivilous spending habits...perhaps it would be a deterent to keep me from buying stuff I don't need. Interesting though, that they want $6.75, plus shipping and handling for the sticker.