Feeling Ranty....

4 whole days of people in the paper/radio/TV telling people to shop. Um, folks, we're in a recession if you didn't know it. People are losing their houses, jobs and way of life. Not that folks haven't been warned for years about this stuff.

I was thinking on this (while contemplating my navel) . . . just 30 years ago (in the mid-70's) folks were talking about the rampant consumerism of our time. Kids were getting all sorts of new games, video was the big thing, cars had more gadgets than we knew what to do with and MTV was right around the corner. And we thought THAT was bad! I look around me and see all the iPods/X-Boxes/computers and more that people are buying - one friend mentioned a parent buying an iPod for their 7 year old. What the heck does a 7 year old need with a freaking iPod??? Get the kid a BIKE! Teach them about the outdoors! Get them a game where they actually have to form a neural synapse! Or a real-live, honest to goodness well-formed sentence!

What the heck has happened to our society? 50 years ago (not that I was alive then.....) the rage was red-rider BB guns - what's the worst that could happen? shoot your eye out? ok, that would have stunk, but dang - at least kids were using their imaginations - wow there's a concept!

Ok, so while I'm ranting on the whole consumerism thing, who got up at 3:30 in the morning on Friday???? hummmm? that would be me. But...but...but...but it was to buy things like sheets and towels for the house. Buy a few presents for Christmas and then go home and sleep for the rest of the morning. I figure, if there is money that can be saved, I should at least do that, but limit it to what is actually needed - not freaking digital picture frames. What's with that? if you want a photo - then print it. On actual paper. So you can have it and share it with people who will come a long time from now to see this lovely photo.

Maybe everyone is getting into Buddhism? To live in the moment, fully present. Well that's all fine and good, just don't forget your actions have consequences. That Newton's Third law reins supreme - For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Ok, ranting off. I'm just worried about the planet. I'm not any tree-hugger but it's really starting to bother me about how we just create things that are no longer of service to us in a year or two - that just doesn't make any sense to me.

My bike - still as wonderful as the day I got her, 6 years ago. Still a beauty. Still straight and true and one of the best things I do to make everything right in the world (even when it's not).

Go ride your bike......