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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on May 11, 2010 at 3:30pm

I think it's shallow. I'm not that much of a materialist. I went three years without any furniture in my apartment. I had not so much as a bed to sleep in. The only thing I did have was a kitchen island because I just don't have any counter space. I make enough money to buy furniture, but I spent it on eating well, opera tickets, road trips (etc.). I own one pair of pants, and one of my shoes is worn down clean through the heel (so that my sock touches pavement). I'd replace the shoes, but they're comfortable and I hate stores. At one point I owned a van, a beater that I bought for $500, but I accidentally drove it into a ravine. I lament the loss of mobility, but as for the van itself? Easy come, easy go.

So, I'm not keeping up with the Jones family by any stretch of the imagination. Even when it comes to my own work and my own art, a lot of it is partially or completely lost because I only care about creating something that's been kicking around in my head; I don't have that much interest in keeping or storing it anywhere.

But even so, I still have my materialistic aspects. I still enjoy material things. I can appreciate them, long for them, cherish them. I will probably invest over ten thousand dollars on my next camera, and I will take a certain amount of pride in having it. Why not? I recently spent money on a big, shiny computer. I like it because it enables me to do things that I simply didn't have the power to do on my laptop. I also like it because it's big. And shiny.

I get what the passage is gunning for. I don't think it's healthy for any person to obsess over or define themselves over material things at the expense of 'spiritual' development, but the opposite extreme is equally bad. Why not just appreciate things in balance? Materialism is an important part of being human. I think it's pseudo philosophical bullshit to "move away" from it.

It should be noted that I consider materialism to be a fixation on material things period. The person who forcefully rejects material things is as much obsessed with them as the person who compulsively accrues them.

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