Tag: christmas

Yes Virginia, There really is enough…

Of all of the ism’s capitalism is the least terrible of the options. No one is altruistic enough to run a socialist nation, communism works but isn’t scalable so that leaves us with the least moldy banged up loaf of bread after the shelves are nearly bare. Capitalism with all its faults it inst really so bad if everyone is trying to play the game in a relatively fair manner. But as all of our mom’s and dad’s told us when we were kids ” Life isn’t fair” In fact there’s a mathematical theory called the Pareto Distribution that goes on to prove that life and capitalism for that manor are in fact unfair, its just a rule of life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution

I’m not a burn it to the ground and start over kind of guy, I like capitalism. I want you to buy my art so that I’ll have more money in my bank account, I want to spend that money on the things I need and to provide for my family. (Notice I said need and not want.)

I’ve come to the realization that through my almost 4 decades on this planet that the greed and desire to collect more and more stuff is killing our spirit and forcing us into a self-imposed state of anxiety, debt, and depression. Think back to yesterday when we read Steinbeck’s letter on Christmas. To paraphrase he said, If I wanted to tear apart a nation I would give them plenty and watch them tell themselves apart. Fast forward to the late ‘90s and the movie fight club gives us this gem about the American condition.

“We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”

Believe me when I tell you that I’m not going to sell all of my worldly possessions and move my family into a yurt and swear of the western world and capitalism to start a more perfect system of fair trade bartering with other like-minded individuals. What I’m trying to do is purchase less, be more thoughtful in the purchases that I make, spend my money wisely, and more importantly invest with companies who are socially, environmentally, and governmentally aware of the choices they are making and how they run their businesses.

When you go with just a little less stuff, a little less expensive stuff and you figure out how to stretch your dollar a little further you’ll often find there really is enough for you and a little extra to go around for the betterment of your neighbor. The act of giving to others is a selfless and selfish act in the same breath, what you give to others is often paid back to you several times over in self-worth.

I’m not crazy enough to think we can influence fortune 500 CEOs to think this way tomorrow but if you and I start living this mission our children’s kids may just live in a world where that loaf of bread called capitalism isn’t quite as moldy.

America, That second kind of Christmas…

I discovered this passage a few years ago while listening to John Steinbeck’s final book America and Americans. It’s not so much of a book as a collection of short stories, essays, and letters from his life. It’s truly amazing and definetely worth a read.https://www.amazon.com/America-Americans-Selected-Nonfiction-Classics/dp/0142437417

The letter in question is the following masterpiece from Steinbeck.

America is like that second kind of Christmas

New York

1959

Guy Fawkes Day

Dear Adlai,

Back from Camelot, and, reading the papers, not at all sure it was wise. Two first impressions. First, a creeping, all pervading nerve-gas of immorality which starts in the nursery and does not stop before it reaches the highest offices both corporate and governmental. Two, a nervous restlessness, a hunger, a thirst, a yearning for something unknown—perhaps morality. Then there’s the violence, cruelty and hypocrisy symptomatic of a people which has too much, and last, the surly ill-temper which only shows up in human when they are frightened.

Adlai, do you remember two kinds of Christmases? There is one kind in a house where there is little and a present represents not only love but sacrifice. The one single package is opened with a kind of slow wonder, almost reverence. Once I gave my youngest boy, who loves all living things, a dwarf, peach-faced parrot for Christmas. He removed the paper and then retreated a little shyly and looked at the little bird for a long time. And finally he said in a whisper, “Now who would have ever thought that I would have a peach-faced parrot?”

Then there is the other kind of Christmas with present piled high, the gifts of guilty parents as bribes because they have nothing else to give. The wrappings are ripped off and the presents thrown down and at the end the child says—”Is that all?” Well, it seems to me that America now is like that second kind of Christmas. Having too many THINGS they spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul. A strange species we are. We can stand anything God and nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick. And then I think of our “Daily” in Somerset, who served your lunch. She made a teddy bear with her own hands for our grandchild. Made it out of an old bath towel dyed brown and it is beautiful. She said, “Sometimes when I have a bit of rabbit fur, they come out lovelier.” Now there is a present. And that obviously male teddy bear is going to be called for all time MIZ Hicks.

When I left Bruton, I checked out with Officer ‘Arris, the lone policeman who kept the peace in five villages, unarmed and on a bicycle. He had been very kind to us and I took him a bottle of Bourbon whiskey. But I felt it necessary to say—”It’s a touch of Christmas cheer, officer, and you can’t consider it a bribe because I don’t want anything and I am going away…” He blushed and said, “Thank you, sir, but there was no need.” To which I replied—”If there had been, I would not have brought it.”

Mainly, Adlai, I am troubled by the cynical immorality of my country. I do not think it can survive on this basis and unless some kind of catastrophe strikes us, we are lost. But by our very attitudes we are drawing catastrophe to ourselves. What we have beaten in nature, we cannot conquer in ourselves.

Someone has to reinspect our system and that soon. We can’t expect to raise our children to be good and honorable men when the city, the state, the government, the corporations all offer higher rewards for chicanery and deceit than probity and truth. On all levels it is rigged, Adlai. Maybe nothing can be done about it, but I am stupid enough and naively hopeful enough to want to try. How about you?

Yours,

John

I read this passage every year around this time and it always amazes me how something written 61 years ago can still feel so massively relevant today. I’m trying to come up with a way to paraphrase this letter that does it justice and doesn’t make it sound like I’m the grinch trying to steal Christmas away from everyone this year. So I’m going to offer you two statements I believe to be of the utmost truth.

Less is More.

Love people and use things not the other way around.