I think I have arrived at a point and I'm sure many of my readers and not-so-supportive followers (LOL) concur with me that at some point in my reality I have sort of melted into a strange form of materialism. The love for things. Things that are beautiful, things that are useful, things that are glamorous, things that are utilitarian but always veering towards THAT which makes me look attractive, or make me feel in some way important and grand. It doesn't really matter. Sublime, sensual lingerie, soft stockings, sky-high heels, gorgeous purses, well-tailored clothes, shimmering gadgets - it doesn't matter! Just some strange materialistic inclination has swathed itself around me the past few years.
People attach many evils to giving into materialism. They think that objects, labels can drag you to a whirlpool of emotional disconnect and social cataclysm because you are considering objects far more important than personal relationships, or self-improvement, or finding the meaning of your existence. They think that it stagnates you because you worship what you can acquire and what you can possess. Worldly possessions are categorized right up there among the evils that await people who forget the real essential things in life.
But I seriously believe though that materialism with some form of moderation and manageability is actually GOOD. It is a benchmark too of how far you have come in a world of things tangible to our hands, senses, mind, cognition. How else can you prove that hard work is paying off than with something material in nature? Do you really think that you labor like a farm animal because you wanted to achieve Nirvana of the mind? NO! Before you move onto that higher form of satisfaction and fulfillment, there is a satisfaction first of the BETTER things in life. Things that can be enjoyed by smell, sight, touch, comparison, enviability. If you want to attach it to STATUS so be it, I cannot move you like I can't move the volcanoes but materialism to a certain extent never hurts.
When you have felt enough stress and pressure to unbuckle you off your comfortable pole positions or when you have worked far too hard, I am sure being a little bit materialistic would not hurt. When you have come from the boundaries of sanity and stepped off your comfort zone to achieve a particular position you have wanted to acquire in life, possessing objects is just one part of the process of giving your achievements flesh, blood and sinew - in short giving them a tangible reality!!! And for many of us, when you come from next to nothing early in life and had to scrape by for every little morsel when you were penniless, maybe materialism is the validation of the horizons you have reached, the state of EVERYTHING-ness you have so wanted after years of want with NOT! Hard and fruitful work SHOULD beget great things especially if you produce something beautiful, you are talented enough, intelligent enough and multifaceted enough. If you believe you are worth something then materialism is one aspect where you can validate all that you have achieved in life. It can't be all that bad!
We need affirmation in some guise, we need something to hang onto in a limbo of a world where realities can become cruel, impersonal, deceptive. Acquiring things can be one method for many people to inject some sanity into their restless, tumultuous and often directionless lives. Just like that interesting scene in that fantastic movie, "INCEPTION" we need a spinning top to ascertain that we are still hanging onto worldly existence, that we have not totally succumbed to a maelstrom of uncertainty and discombobulation because of the harshness of our daily realities. For me perhaps my spinning top is materialism. Sorry Leonardo Di Caprio, I should choose something more original, a gyrating Rubik's Cube perhaps?
