My Cross Of Consumption
As i walk through the darkness.
depressed. exhausted. unliving. darkness.
i loathe being awake.
the crying child. the sleep that scoffs.
i think of the things that i must do.
the repairs. the holes. the sagging porch.
i curse the possessions that have turned on me
the house. the yard. the toys. the tools.
i realize i have built a trap.
plastic. possessions. owning. me.
i realize i curse myself.
consumed. by my. want.
And I as I walk I kick 3 toys
They laugh. They jeer. Their songs. Of Triumph.
And nail me to my cross. Of consumption.
Categories: I swear
That is a creepy picture! But in such a way that is makes me laugh. I know the feeling you are describing here. I get very annoyed with our “stuff” and the maintenance it requires sometimes. Go throw away or give away something. It’ll make you feel better.
The truth of this poem really resonated with me today. I am collecting clothes to give away. My wardrobe is less than half the size it used to be. And still I think… it’s too much.
How do you tell your baby’s grandparents you don’t want more toys for your child? And why is it that the plastic ones jeer more than the others?
I’ve missed ya, Matches!
This lovely poem reminds me of “The Money Pit”—remember that movie? As long as you don’t run off and sleep with the orchestra conductor, you’ll make it out okay. I hope you get that…
Dolls creep me out. But I should be thanking your for not posting a photo of a clown-doll. Because that may make me pee my pants. The photo is still wonderful.
I can’t decide if i really like this picture or hate it…if it’s distracting and over-the-top or interesting. dolls creep me out too overthunk. it started with the twilight zone with the living doll episode.
Clbeyer: this is the exact conversation I had with my partner two days ago. I want to say to our parents. “OK you can now buy them one present for their birthday.” We are mulling over the idea of buying them something that we can all do together: a trip to a theme park for example and not buy them anything. What I’ve decided that I would really like to do is to take all the toys….ALL OF THEM…and get them out of their containers and put them in one room spread out EVERYWHERE…and take our parents in the room and say, “STOP BUYING US SHIT!” But my partner told me that this would not me a very nice thing to do.
On top of all of this, my daughter doesn’t take care of her toys and it dawned on my why: she has so many of them. We are now in a fully-consumable era that has no respect for personal posessions.
We have implemented the one toy per birthday rule or at Christmas, one joint toy for them all. It kinda works, but when you have a lot of family, the toys still add up. My grandma gives us season passes to Silver Dollar City, which we love to use. It is a wonderful gift for our birthdays and Christmas combined. Also, for their birthdays and Christmas, I make them “give” away some of their older toys to the Good Will. It makes for a much cleaner house, much less stuff to destroy, and a spirit of giving.
Oh and the doll picture totally creeps me out!
Wow. I love this poem. So cool, that you are my friend.
I too curse our house and the “possessions that have turned on me.” I curse them regularly, whenever things get to be too much. You put it very well.
don’t you think that the doll is just taunting you? it is just crying out, “i own you!” lol. i have this feeling a lot. this asofterworld comic has always resonated with me and it strikes me as perfect for this post: http://asofterworld.com/index.php?id=230
i curse the possessions that have turned on me
the house. the yard. the toys. the tools.
I can completely identify, unfortunately.
Upon having kids, my brother and his wife advised the whole family that toys given at birthdays, Christmas, etc., would be given to charities, and they encouraged us to give to charities in the kids’ names. They are diligently trying to keep a lid on this. I’m so proud of them! But I can see what an uphill battle it is.
Still a few hours left to get your 2nd post in for the month of June
Rings loud and clear to me. This is why I love the “Into The Wild” story about Chris McCandless. He completely turned his back on “the possessions that have turned on me,” and I admire him for it. Incidently, my brother-in-law recently called McCandless a “misguided fool.” My brother-in-law can be an ass sometimes.
and as a birthday passed…i found it hard not to buy something for my daughter. Looking at the table of presents she asked me, ‘which one is from you daddy?’ A hard lump in my throat. The gift I gave her was a great intangible one…we had a wonderful time at a them park. I took the day off and we spent it riding rides and playing games. That was our gift, and it was fun.
We have conditioned ourselves to believe that love can be found inside of a neatly wrapped package.
This is why the parents buy presents, because of love. I cannot deny them that …and opportunity to lavish them with love once a year.
I don’t know where the middle ground is. It seems on top of a very slippery pointy slope. Savings bonds don’t express love to a 5 year old. Slippery gooey fun things do.
Tonight I will ask her how she liked the ethereal birthday present that her mechanically doting parents gave her.