the siren song of 'more'
the cost of convenience and the worth of inconvenience
A few months ago I read an article by someone who decided to put a one-year freeze on their closet.
For 365 days they didn’t buy any new clothes. They didn’t accept hand-me-overs. Nothing new-to-them was added to their wardrobe.
They mended the knees of pants when when it was called for, recycled sweatshirts that had become too threadbare for repair into rags for cleaning, and closely examined their relationship to consumerism.
How admirable! I thought. How quaint!
But beneath my positive regard, I was struck by how uncomfortable their exercise made me because I was also secretly thinking to myself ‘I could never do that’.
It’s easy to ignore the extent of my consumerism, especially when I am so good at wrapping it up in pretty, noble trappings.
While I really value and have latched on to the zero-waste philosophy, I’m also incredible sneaky and clever when it comes to justifying my online purchases to myself.
I’m buy second hand so really I’m savings something from the dump…
Buying from Amazon helps me complete necessary day-to-day shopping that would otherwise take much longer and require more effort because of my ADHD….
My garden and my plants rely on me to thrive so I really do neeeeed this new moisture meter…
My addiction to consumption is squirrelly as hell.
I conveniently ignore my distaste for Amazon’s devastating carbon footprint, crappy labor practices (that also gouge broader economic strength), and its astronomical contribution to packaging waste when it saves me a 12 minutes trip to the hardware store.
Yes, I’ve rejected fast fashion but I still somehow justify owning 15 different second-hand coats without truly examining what it is about having 15 coats that feels so good… and why I still want more.
On the flip side, the way we dress and the objects we welcome into our homes have an emotional effect on us and intentionally surrounding ourselves with things that evoke a positive experience is better than the opposite.
Still, I’m plagued by the suspicion that grinds away at me. When the cost of convenience is so expertly hidden from us, it must be too ugly and too high a price.
Every object we take into our ownership requires energy to manage it.
To use it,
to clean it,
to preserve it,
to store it,
to decide when it’s no longer needed,
to make plans for selling it,
or giving it away, or
to eventually send it to a dump somewhere…
When our lives are a screen tap away from that seductively convenient “buy now” button we lose the important seconds that stand between us and impulsively acquiring more stuff.
Those seconds actually play an unexpectedly valuable role - financially and energetically - in making us consider if we truly want or need this “one little thing” and more importantly, whether we really want to invest the energy and labor into all that goes into possessing a thing once it crosses our threshold and becomes ours.
Online buying through the screens we carry in our pockets is expensively slippery and massive, greed-fueled corporations profit it from it while the planet, our bank accounts, and our emotional reserves are exhausted.
We’re going to continue consuming to one degree or another but when we slow down and visit a brick and mortar shop owned by one of our neighbors, we re-introduce the human element into the experience. We banter with the cashier, we say ‘hello’ to the friendly dog patiently waiting outside the entrance, we discover the sweet coffee shop next door that just opened, and we admire the tattoos of the staff members who helps us find what we’re looking for. Sometimes we go to the store and we walk out not having bought anything at all! What a wonder!
Maybe we can choose to embrace that the slower acquisition of things is exactly the inconvenience we need to help us consume less without the guilt and self-disappointment.
Maybe we can see inconvenience as a wholesome, healthy, tempering mechanism that inherently reduces the hidden financial, energetic, communal, and environmental tolls.
Maybe we can see that the simplicity that arises from a more inconvenient way of consuming can be far more valuable than the convenience we’ve been lulled into prioritizing above all else.
Inconvenience may by the unexpected hero of both our households and our souls that we didn’t realize we needed.
Like everything in this faster-and-faster world we have to determine and take responsibility for our own relationship to convenience and the very real impact our forgettably small clicks have on our communities and planets.
I’m still figuring this out for myself and what the guardrails need to look like, but I’m happy to let the commute to the hardware store do the heavy lifting to slow me down, put me in a spot to listen to a few songs on the road, and to only bring home the one pair of garden clippers I actually need
Until next month,
Special Highlight:
The author who initially modeled this whole write-and-share-essays-for-free idea just published one of my favorite essays of theirs so far. Please go read about Cody’s public debut here:
Extra Goods:
True progress takes time. After George Floyd’s murder, we demanded reform and meaningful improvement to public safety resources. I was heartened to see that a new public safety pilot program is underway in Seattle. The CARE program dispatches mental health professionals alongside law enforcement officers. Once LOE’s determine that there is no threat of violence or criminal activity, the CARE team can step in to assist our neighbor in crisis and the LOE’s can be re-dispatched to higher priority emergencies. I’m sure the program will be imperfect but I hope we see promising outcomes and improved community care as a result.
I’ve been using Ridwell since I moved to Seattle and was just forwarded this wonderful news story about how it began and the impact it’s making. It’s buoys the heart to know that there are people working quietly and tirelessly to do better. If you want to see if it is in your area, use my little link right here for a free one month trial!
Dungeons and Drag Queens is going on tour!! Bellingham! Portland! New York! And more! If you live in any of the towns or cities where they are having a show I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you get tickets for yourself and your funnest gaggle of friends. It is such a riot!
I’ve recently been working on a playlist of songs that feel pretty incredible to listen to in the morning. Enjoy!