About a year ago I did a post about the rich man and the fisherman, a story I was familiar with because of a certain cartoon I found while a teenager. When my youthful eyes went over the illustration 30 years ago it made a lot of sense to me and I kept a copy.
Then I found the cartoon that confirmed for me that simple living was the only way to go. After our cross country move intervened the page descended back into a box somewhere. I found it again recently and am posting it like I promised an anonymous commenter a year ago.
Please do show your kids. Perhaps we can save some of them from the consumerism trap and they can focus their lives on more important things. It would be great if they could work more at being free rather than trying to out do the Joneses by collecting more crap than they have.
We should let kids know that it doesn't get any better than being simple and free. Free from wage slavery, free from repressive governments, free from forming our identity through the things we own, free from endless maintenance and storage problems, free from arm-twisting advertisers and marketing campaigns.
“Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree.”
― Jack Kerouac
I love that cartoon, I've never seen it before but I love it so much. Thank you for sharing it with us. I totally agree with you... It would be my dream if my kids adopted my mindset as they grow older. Every day I try to teach them to embrace simple life and reject consumerism. I hope some of my teachings sink in. I would rather live in a trailer home than in a big house tied up to even bigger mortgage and filled up with whole bunch of crap I don't need.
ReplyDeleteKamyria,
DeleteMy parents were simple living savers rather than shopping spenders when I was a kid and that made sense to me. Growing up I had no ambition to strive for the things other people had and that has freed me to do the things that are important to me.
Your kids are very fortunate to have your example to follow, and will become leaders themselves in time. It is a tough battle, but one worth working through.