SAA. stuff addicts anonymous

I am filthy, freaking rich. Seriously. Honestly, so much so that it almost disgusts me. The very notion that buying a $3 toothbrush is not even a remote issue for me, means that I am considered rich in the majority of the world. When our lives are filled with boredom, I think we have much to be concerned about. When we need entertainment because we "deserve" a break, I believe there is something wrong with that picture.

In the majority of the world, food, water, shelter, and clothing (what many consider the basics of necessity in human life) are scarce. The idea of going into a clothing store and buying clothes is preposterous. The idea of having a television, a computer, the internet is so bizarre and foreign. 

When I turn on my faucet, water comes out. Have you ever fathomed what it would be like to live in a place where you walk for miles to get a jug of dirty water? Have you ever fathomed a place where you can't take a shower whenever you want to? Have you ever fathomed being someplace where the "tap" water will literally kill you if you drink it? 

We are so overstuffed with stuff in America. I know I am. When I look at my house filled with stuff...I become so disgusted. What is here that I really need? Anything? Even as I sit here writing these post, I am irritated with my grabby, sticky, self focused hands thinking about how I want more and more and more stuff! 

How do we break this addiction? Do we need to surround ourselves with environments where stuff ceases to matter? Do we need to move away from the US and embed ourselves in communities that genuinely know what suffering looks like? Do we have to suffer to grow?

I wonder how many times in the course of my life, I have become angry with my children for breaking some item in my collage of stuff. I wonder how many times I have chosen "stuff" over people or relationships. How many times have I watched a movie or been on the internet or on my cell phone, instead of being with my children, or helping people around me? Do I actively seek opportunities to serve others, or do I seek opportunities to serve my stuff obsessed self? Does my husband work to provide food, shelter, clothing, or does he work to acquire more and more stuff? 

We have prostituted ourselves out. We have sold ourselves in jobs, in time, in emotion, in vast dedication to items. To inanimate objects with little to no meaning. We are so focused on stuff that burns up in fires, blows away in tornadoes, crushes in earthquakes, taken away by thieves, destroyed by time...

We buy food we don't eat, stuff we don't use, clothes we don't wear.

I want to be better than this. I want to do more than this. I want the items in my house to have no hold on me. I want to be completely content with whether or not they fade away in an instant. I want to go back to where I was so many years ago, watching my house burn. I want to hold on to the beautiful lesson I learned from that..."stuff" ALWAYS goes away. I want to do better than what I am currently doing.