Introspection + Contemplation + Ideals

Living in a sandbox.
As children we played in a sandbox, filled with toy trucks, scoopers and buckets, free to build things and have fun. Some 20 or 30 years later, are we still playing in a sandbox as we live out our lives?

More days then not, I feel like life is about the accumulation of toys and things; things that we fancy and things that are for fun. The malls are overwhelming, overflowing abundantly with goods. Who ordered so much? And what happens to all the things that are not sold?

As adults we make money and we spend our disposable income on goods. And it's our every right to enjoy the bounties of our labour. But we end up getting toys... Toys I will call them because they have no consequence to the betterment of this world, but are there merely for our enjoyment and comfort.

Consumption is the engine that turns the wheels of our economy. We are programmed to want and to buy, right from childhood. Marketing companies know so much about our psyche, they bedazzle us through their advertisements, convincing us to buy their product. We have such strong associations with brands and emotional attachment to them and we have readily available ammunition to defend the products we love.

And all the while the world is hungry. While the planet is stretched beyond it's ecological capacity.

It's interesting that the measure of how well our economy is doing is in consumer confidence. When consumer confidence falls, the economists and investors get jittery, because money must flow from the rich to the rich. Who will buy up all the goods that were produced?

From childhood we are programmed... by society and by our parents. Playing with cars and playing house… it all comes true in our adulthood. We get a good education, to have a good job, to be comfortable. To be well off and to "make it". Having money so we can choose from a variety of options. The choice to choose any toy we want in the sandbox. Whatever and whenever. Without this freedom, we feel trapped... as if in a box.

We learn to desire and we learn to deserve these things, acquiring a keen sense of entitlement... sensitive and relative to what our peers get.

And through it all, I believe we become irrelevant, indifferent to the rest of the world. It's about my enjoyment and me only. We become senile to the things that matter… we become removed and ineffective to the hurts of this world; we exacerbate the hurts of the world... and if ever criticized, we deflect and combat this criticism and creatively legitimize our actions and inactions… because "I am right" or "this is your opinion, not mine" or "it's not my problem".

They say with knowledge comes responsibility. Then as educated citizens of this earth, what are we responsible for?

"'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."

To me every choice has a consequence, an implication. I believe life is no longer a playground without consequences. There is responsibility. Perhaps it starts with a balanced lifestyle of consumption (like a balanced diet), conscious of our impact... shall we call it responsible toy buying?

The 1993 film Schindler's List is based on a true story of a German businessman who saves over a thousand Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factory. One scene haunts me to this day. Near the end, when the Jews in his factory are about to be liberated by the Russians, Oskar Schindler must flee. The Jews give him a ring made from a worker’s golden teeth filings with the engravings “He who saves the life of one man, saves the world entire.” He is deeply moved and ashamed that he did not do more.

Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson): I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don't know. If I'd just... I could have got more.
Itzhak Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.
Oskar Schindler: If I'd made more money... I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I'd just...
Itzhak Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.
Oskar Schindler: I didn't do enough!
Itzhak Stern: You did so much.
[Schindler looks at his car]
Oskar Schindler: This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people.
[removing Nazi pin from lapel]
Oskar Schindler: This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this.
[sobbing]
Oskar Schindler: I could have gotten one more person... and I didn't! And I... I didn't!

This haunts me.

Our generation is in the midst of a time when we know what we should do, we know the consequences of our actions and inaction. We know that the ice caps are melting and our lifestyles consume the earth and people are starving. We are at a time in history where we can end extreme poverty: we have the knowledge, the technology.. yet we lack the collective will.