Extremes

Awhile back I saw an Oprah show about “Freegans”. I had never heard the term before, apparently most people haven’t. So what is a Freegan you ask?

Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed. ~ from Freegan.info

On the surface it sounds lovely, if not hippy-ish and a bit idealistic. While watching the show, I became enthralled by the mere concept of minimal consumption. Throughout my teens and twenties I was all about materialism. I just had to have this or that. My house had to be just so. My kids had to look the part too. As time has passed and I am nearly forty, those things don’t mean as much as they used to. In all honesty, some of it came about just from being broke ourselves and we dealt with it as necessities.

Now that we are well on our way to being back on our feet, I still can’t see myself going back to those old ways. The Freegan concept, though fascinating, is one end of the extreme. The other end could possibly be seen in this blog by Melissa Morris.

I don’t think I could stomach either end of the spectrum to tell the truth. I like being right in the middle somewhere. I don’t want the big fancy house and luxury cars, but I can’t bring myself to dumpster dive for my meal either, although I would if hard times called for feeding my kids or letting them starve.

I’ve seen a lot of people trying to live the dream like Melissa by buying houses and cars and toys and clothes, etc. etc. that they really can not afford. Why do you think the foreclosure rate is so high right now? People living beyond their means.

My choice is to make a good home for my family, but not at the expense of my pocket book or the environment. I am not your typical “tree-hugger”, but I do see how incredibly wasteful I have been in the past and I don’t plan to continue it into the future. We don’t need to go to the extreme folks, everyone (especially in our gluttonous country) needs to be mindful of what we buy and then send to the trash to fill up yet another land fill.

Ignore the commercials for the latest and greatest thing that you just have to have. Don’t let corporations sway you into whipping out your credit card to buy things you really don’t need. Try to live within your budget. We all make those rash decisions at times. The best we can do is to try to be happy in the middle.