These questions come to mind as I take in the latest Christmas season, and, once again, hear well-meaning people sound off with high-minded derision of materialism. They are upset at the hordes who line up at discount stores to pile cheap, unloved goods into their carts to give as gifts. I beg to differ, however, as that kind of thing isn’t truly materialistic. That’s just anxiety. And, pointing fingers at folks who do this isn’t going to help anything. Because, as the saying goes:
“If you see a problem, it’s yours.”
Anxious getting and spending is a bastardized, repressed form of materialism, perhaps. And true materialism is something which is much more enjoyable, if only (oh, if only) we would just admit it, and let ourselves roll around in the idea a bit. I will try to define here what healthy materialism looks like, and I’ll need a little help from my friends.
An Eastern European friend always says to me, “You cannot afford to buy cheaply.” What he means is, unloved goods do nothing to sustain a person. Money is wasted, the gift is forgotten, and the pleasure is cheap.
The real thing is beautiful, and nothing to fear. Richard Rodriguez, put it this way once, in an essay for Newshour:
I remember years ago in London a friend of mine urging me to go into Fortnum and Mason’s, the fancy food store, go in and buy just one piece of chocolate, he said, and think about that chocolate all day, and when you eat it tonight, eat it slowly, very slowly….…To this day I remember the weight and the smells of the first books I ever owned. I can still remember the texture of paper in the first novel I ever got from the library.
I don’t know where we got the idea that this kind of materialism is sinful. What’s so bad about feeling, smelling, holding the pages of a book? It may help to know that astrologically, one twelfth of our human experience is defined by materialism. In our second house, which is the realm of the material, we are to learn to express our spirit’s values and tastes in the physical realm. It’s all very important stuff.
It would explain why that good champagne seems to connect a person with the divine. It is because at some point, a vintner, seized with a passion to express an idea for champagne, produced something. The artisanship is a quality which has now become physical, and you can drink it, and actually imbibe the art.
So, if the cosmos has carved out a little unit of Materialism for us to experience, we ought to abandon any thoughts that materialism might not be blessed by heaven. It’s not true. Just imagine: what if we loved objects again? At least just as wholeheartedly as we seem to enjoy, oh, low self-esteem and the anxiety with which we pile cheap goods into our carts?
Thus, this materialism is most ironically a spiritual pursuit, as loving a piece of chocolate this much can’t help but connect our body to our heart and our mind. A true materialist doesn’t just feed the animal hunger, but connects with the rapture of Creation.
If we shun our material nature in pursuit of high ideals, or, get stuck in our heads, we begin to get sick. Richard Rodriguez:
Americans don’t eat slowly. We taught the world how to eat on their own, and we treasure food, convenience food, that doesn’t take much thinking about, which is why in the end we don’t have very much to say about the smell of the piece of chocolate.
We are alone. With our heads. Our ideals. And it’s a sad place to be.
Why not lose track of time this holiday season. Why not start the new year with a few good chocolates and a bottle of nice champagne. And if you can’t afford a good bottle right now, just wait…it will be worth your while. Mireille Giuliano, author of “French Women Don’t Get Fat,” and CEO of Veuve-Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne, Inc., reminisces that she went to throw a party for her college friends, but was shocked at the price of good champagne. So, she waited to have the party until she could afford to buy enough good champagne. In her case, her materialism turned into a fabulous career.
Delayed gratification, not ascetisism. Timelessness, not instantaneousness. Self-esteem, not self-loathing. Time with friends, not judgement of others. These are only a few of the gifts of materialism.
