We spend so much of our lives chasing the almighty dollar that we miss the things which truly matter...family, friends, love, compassion, art, music, etc. If we could see past the things that "Mother Culture" tell us are important (Mother Culture lies), then we could rid ourselves of the extraneous detritus and concentrate on the simple pleasures...the internal experiences. For those of you who have not yet been exposed to the concept of "Mother Culture," please read the life-changing book, Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. There is a link to his book on the "NO to MORE" home page. It is at the top of the list of books which have helped manifest profound change in my life. Understanding that there is a different human story to be told, one from a profoundly different perspective, opened my eyes many years ago in ways which are still being discovered.
We are slaves to our possessions...to our materialism. We leave our homes and families to work at jobs that may, or more often do not, feed our souls in order to have money to buy more, or more expensive, things that we can't take with us when we die. Entire industries are made of of people who do nothing more than move imaginary money and figures around in computers to sustain a house of cards that is now falling. We can all see it happening. The question is...What are we going to do about it?
The movement, "NO to MORE," is a rallying cry for those who have ears to hear and minds open to new ideas, to free ourselves from the spurious dictates of "Mother Culture" and make a change. Stand up to those who believe that we have "dominion" over Mother Earth and become stewards instead. Refuse to blindly follow the cultural commands that tell us to OBEY and CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME.
There is a better way to live, and my goal is to present for examination those things that are taking us, as a people, away from what advances us and pulls us toward that which further enslaves us. The outrageous conspicuous consumption in which we engage truly sickens me, and our obeisance to superficiality and external stimuli is frightening in its ubiquity.
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Case in point:
The Hermès Birkin Bag
History of the bag
Named after British film star Jane Birkin, Hermès introduced the Birkin in 1984. As a symbol of status and power, it has few, if any, betters.About the bag
Birkin Bags start at about $6,000; the most expensive version, made of crocodile with solid gold (or platinum) closures studded with diamonds, tops $85,000. The Birkin Martha Stewart carried into federal court to stand trial on conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and securities fraud charges was probably in the middle-brow neighborhood of $12,000.The waiting list to purchase a Birkin is about two years long.
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WHAT??? A purse that STARTS at $6,000? Have we completely lost our minds?!?
When I first learned that there was actually a purse that sold for $49,000 (and that's not even the top-of-the-line model), my first reaction was that I've lived too long. It is unconscionable to be so caught up in appearances that we'd spend more for a purse than most of the planet can spend for a house. There is a fundamental flaw in our thinking. We need a paradigm shift...BADLY! We, as a culture, need to change the way we think. We need to learn to say "NO to MORE!"
"INSANITY: Doing the same thing, repeatedly, in the same way and expecting different results."
Politicians fall in and out of favor. Popular ideas on how to "fix" the economy won't work because we're addressing the problems using the same kind of thinking that got us into the mess in the first place. Only a shift in our own thinking...about ourselves, our lives, our environment, our communities, our purpose on this planet, and our individual effects on the Earth as an organism holds any chance of actually making a difference in our future. Now is the time. We must act before it's too late.
I've begun listing the things to be addressed in this forum.
Just Say NO to MORE:
- Rampant consumerism
- Religious Dogma
- Governmental Interference in our Lives
- Greed
- Pollution
- Debt-based Economics
- Outrageous Luxuries
- Living Externally
- Hatred
- Illegal Immigration
- Lobbying
- Fanaticism
- Divisiveness
- Special-Interest Groups
- Further Growth of Big Cities
- Conspicuous Consumption
~From Life Uncommon by Jewel
More importantly I intend to show as many examples as I can find of ways in which people are choosing to live authentic, harmonious, balanced lives as stewards of the land rather than holding dominion over the Earth and her gifts.
My husband and I have accepted this idea as the key concept to share with others...changing the lives of those who resonate with us as well as our own lives. We're freeing ourselves of the "things" accumulated over a lifetime that we've become slaves to in order to leave the city behind and travel the country sharing that freedom with those who are ready to hear.
Follow us on our journey into new territory and share our adventure of discovery...more importantly, ask yourself how you can just say "NO to MORE."
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