I’ve seen a documentary about the god of the modern world — consumerism. Consumption. Consuming. About it becoming people’s main priority in life. I would say, consumerism has become life itself. Why I talk about consumerism? Because this is one thing people do, when their three main needs are met: hunt for food, grooming and finding a shelter. Once you have this, and today we have this in abundance, you end up having free time. And the big question is what do you do with it. It depends on person’s environment and the kind of people that surround her.
Today, the question of free time is answered everywhere you look. In fact, they scream the answer to us and flash it at us. We have to buy!
So, I’d say the today’s life of an average Westerner and increasingly of people in the rest of the world, is largly stockpiling the crap they don’t need in their homes. Buying cars, food for their pets, vacation packages and probably tonnes of other stuff I am not even aware being an exile and a former Soviet child. Shopping is what people live for today.
If we were better people and actually wanted to do something fulfilling in life, something that makes us feel truly alive, connected to the world around us and others, we would be asking ourselves “Why do anything at all?” I was asking this question when Meg and I were stuck in tropical third world at anchor, with nothing around at all, with people on an island who might as well be a different specie as we had nothing in common. And the answer was…
There is no reason to do anything. As there is no reason behind us being born. What you do with your life and your every day depends on you, providing you have already taken care of having a shelter and food.
Scary? It is. Being responsible for finding meaning for your life is an intimidating task. But that’s just it. There are no answers hidden away for us somewhere. We have our life, a flash in time on this planet, in this Universe and that’s that.
So what did I end up doing? How did I drag myself out from that doom and isolation at anchor? It’s been days and days of begging governments for various papers, countless miles offshore, more alien shores I don’t belong, fixing our old boat, fighting with Meg when both of us are at the end of our emotional resources to keep taking it. And so far, all it gave me is a chance of a better life. We managed to survive a massive crossing and got to the place where we might, both, be allowed to stay and want to stay. It’s a long shot, Meg thinks. Thought. I am not concerned, what matters is that we are taking action, trying to get to see if a day will come when we welcome it rather than resent and fear it.