I have some fairly large philosophical differences with one of my closest friends. Philosophical shopping differences are what I'm on about now.
Indeed - these differences sometimes make me feel like someone poured battery acid in my sensitivity (wouldn't that be so much easier if there was just this place called 'the sensitivity' and you could tune it with a pitch fork and a little twist of a knob?)
My sensitivity gets SO messed up!! Even more so when this person stops responding because I'm jumping up and down like...I'm being burned with battery acid...and it's not something they want to deal with at that moment.
"It f-ing hurts!!!" I angrily assert, "thats it, I can't take it any more" I blurt out with the strength of a tornado and the conviction of someone who's said this before, and has clearly taken more. "Why do you take it so personally??" they ask.....DUH!!! Why???...I'm sure that's got to be the most annoying and STUPID question ever. Why. Why...what?
I'LL TELL YOU WHY I TAKE IT PERSONALLY!!! Because SHOPPING KILLS, and I DON'T WANT TO DIE!
(think fast holly...jesus......why why why.....the word begins to form a fractal...SNAP out of it)
BECAUSE....shopping gives you cancer...it makes you fat...ummmmmm....it messes up your love life, it gives you warts and gas and eats up your retirement fund. Baby animals probably die because you shop...the rain forests are diminishing because you shop...ITS JUST WRONG!
Oh...why? Why is it so personal. My own stupidity only augments my rage.
Then the calm...
"Dude...check out my blog!"
"your consumerist tendencies are antithetical to my very existence!" This is a problem, one not helped by my very ungraceful address. Note - anger is NOT the best persuasive technique.
But it's huge! Hand V machine. Creator V consumer. Big pocketbook v never had a pocket book to rub together...
So...what AM I on about?
I'm saying that it is WAY better to make stuff if you can, than buy it. I think it's better for everyone, especially the children, who are so creative anyways, and will benefit SO MUCH more by your un-purchased items.
I'm saying that buying stuff (especially if it's a routine of toy buying and not saved for special occasions) is probably more about YOU parent, than the child. It's probably about the time you don't have to spend with them, or your guilt, or your childhood - because if you stopped and looked around (the planet) I might think that your choice of activity with your child might be researching charities, or organizations for needy children, and giving some of your stuff away, or helping someone who needs in a way you can give. Getting your child excited about that instead of the location of every nearest gift store seams SO much more...right.
Yes - I butt in, I say what's on my mind, I piss the people closest to me off ALL the time. SOMETIMES I can just act. In this case I did a bit of both.
His daughter wanted to buy the pond that was on the box cover of her latest acquisition - some plastic african animals. I said we could make a better pond ourselves...and that indeed anything she had her eye on, we could make a better version of. So - we sat and we cut and she placed and designed while I stapled and glued, and her dad tossed a helicopter at me and said try making a better one of these then.
You can expect to be seeing a totally superior helicopter here made from recycled materials in the next week. In the mean time, our pond turned into a savanna and is WAY better than anything she could have bought. Some of the fish even have long eyelashes.
And really...It looks great with those little mas-manufactured animals in it. I love that stuff too - just in moderation.
I like juxtapositions...allot. Maybe that's why I like my evil consumerist helicopter chucking friend so much. I have to justify MY narcissistic, do goodie rants to him - and that makes me a better person, and more important...my argument stronger. Ah Ha!
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