Who Are We?

I have been exploring the word 'consumer' as in 'we are a consumer culture' and as I looked this holiday season, I saw the festive red and green decorative call to spend, spend, spend. The red and green call comes earlier every year, and now even Black Friday has moved to weeks before Thanksgiving.  WTF?  When I picture 'consumers' what I picture collectively is a flock of locusts tearing through every environment they pass, leaving destruction and desolation in their path.  Individually, I picture massive amounts of stuff, stuff, stuff being fed into our systems and putrid piles of garbage being left in our wakes.  My new Samsung 4-G phone leaves behind the useless carcass of my LG Rumor--luckily, I was able to bequeath this carcass to my ever-lovin husband. So actually, my 4-G left behind the useless and non-disposable carcass of his RAZAR. 

I tuned into the Pachamama Alliance Luncheon live stream earlier this year.  I've tuned into TEDTalks and listened to how we are eradicating whole cultures and peoples with our insatiable need for more.   Will we ever come from replenishing as our core being rather than consuming?   What could our world look like if we buy all of our gifts on Craig's List or in second hand stores?  What could we create if we donated last year's computer to a school or last years cell phone to a women's shelter?  What if we learn  recognize the inherent value of all our possessions and see who could claim and enjoy that value when we are ready to let go? 

I am reminded of Edward G Robinson's character, 'Rocky' in the classic movie, Key Largo.  What he wants is: more; yeah, that's it, more;  there will never be enough, at least there never has been.   I wonder what happened to him that he is never satisfied.  In my 'who would I like to work with fantasy', he comes up as an ideal client.  We would get to the underlying beliefs that caused him to be so insatiable, and debug those patterns, release those barriers and leave 'Robinson's Rocky' with peace and freedom within  the core of his being.  A whole new life would open up where his actions are dictated from this peace within, maybe he would even apologize to Gay Dawn (you'll have to see the movie-HA!)  and buy her that drink.