In the
world I see, you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the
ruins of Rockefeller Center. You’ll wear leather clothes that will last you the
rest of your life. You’ll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears
Tower. And when you look down, you’ll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying
strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.
We are
consumers. We’re the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty,
these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines,
television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra,
Olestra.
Reject
the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.
[note: Fight Club is crude, graphic, explicit, disturbing, and an absolutely brilliant novel and film that is actually not really about fighting at all.]
Trends come and trends go, but useful clothing is forever.
When I get home, will I fall back into the culture and
system of consumerism?
Will the latest fashions regain their hold upon me after
eleven months of cycling the same week’s-worth of clothing over and over?
Being on the outskirts of a major city in Romania, this is
really the first time since last September I have been exposed to culture and
fashion on a scale similar to what I experience back in the States. It has been
quite a shock to my system, to be honest. The pursuit of name brands, the
immodesty of women’s clothing, the complete and total lack of anything outside
of the bland homogeneous trendy clothing of a pre-packaged culture. Yuck. Seems
like on both sides of the Atlantic, everybody is trying to dress to show off
their uniqueness…but everybody is doing it the same way.
“We’re the byproducts
of a lifestyle obsession.” Have we let ourselves become defined by our…our
stuff? Are we now owned by what we own?
“You’re not your job.
You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive.
You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your f***ing khakis. You’re
the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” Sounds harsh, but it does echo
both Jesus and Paul… first Jesus in the blatant rejection of worldy possessions
(see the rich young ruler from Luke 18 or the lilies of the field in Matthew
6), and then Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, in which he states, “Up
to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.”
Think about it. It’s kind of silly. Clothing exists to keep us
warm, to protect us, simply to cover the body. Of course, God created us to
create and to be creative. I get that. And He loves diversity and art and He
probably digs the idea of “Cool.” But is buying the same overpriced skinny
jeans or vintage flannel that everyone else is buying creative or “cool”? Or do we just have a
serious-but-subtle fear of man syndrome going on? To be sure, I have been
guilty of the same things I am condemning. But hey, Paul killed Christians
before becoming one. A change of heart is a good thing sometimes.
Will I waste money on whatever is trendy?
Or will I wear clothing that will last longer than the
latest fashion trend?
Will I be defined by my junk? What I wear, what I own, what
I drive?
Or will I be defined by whom I love and how I love?
Will I be consumed by consuming?
