Land of Goshen

Then the Lord your God will prosper you
abundantly in all the work of your hand
--Deuteronomy 30:9

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
or what's a heaven for?
--Men and Women, Robert Browning

That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff
while you go out and get more stuff!
--Stuff, George Carlin
______________

There are a few things that are self evident in these United States, and one of them is that most people are drowning in their stuff. They have rooms and closets cordoned off for its storage, and even buy sheds and rent square footage in other people's storage facilities in which to store their stuff.

"Buying Clubs" have encouraged the construct of laying up goods, inculcating a paranoid squirrel mentality in their members. I know of a family who own a very lovely home, but for whom several rooms are simply storage depots for 48-count paper towel packages from Costco. They live in a small room with Barcoloungers and t.v., secure beside their private PX.

Such people have become professional quartermasters or pursers, leading to one of the U.S.'s largest exports -- "used clothing." We have been told to go out there and shop -- it's good for our recessed economy. Yet we do not in good faith need what we already have, and buying it on credit is in part what has landed us here.

Ranger lives as simply as anyone, yet even he lives in excess. Our wants exceed our needs. The Seven Deadly Sins have been transvalued -- greed and gluttony have become positives. Frugality in America is the First Deadly sin. We are the shopping nation, forever and ever, amen.

We read with curiosity books on simplicity, about people like the Dalai Lama who wears that same saffron robe every time, and hope magazines like Real Simple will help us get it down. Yet this urge to purge is countered by our leader's directives to get out there and buy.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government will continue to print money and send it downwind, and Ranger will continue to re-sole his shoes.