Some thoughts on our obsession with shiny new things, The Ancien Regime, stardust and celestial bodies. Why do we want new when we can be so much happier to just renew?
So, I have promised myself to carve out time everyday to write down something that is on my mind and recently it feels like a lot of my energy is around 'renewal'. Rather than something plain 'new' with all the ecological and unsustainable connotations that that word has.
I recently hit the big 5 0, and with that I had to come to terms with me - myself- being very far from 'new'. Both my kids recently became teens, so 'mother hood' and 'being a mum' is no longer 'new' (even though 'mum of teenagers' - that a subcategory that is new for sure;)
“I have always been fascinated by the past, my own, history of dress, history in general (though really not all history;), the way that we as humans keep on renewing ourselves. Our Social History - human lives and how we have lived them. How we created ourselves within and against the grain of the society we inhabited.”
Once enough time has been spent on this planet, enough time looking at what went on before us, our recent past as well as the past as far back as we can tell, we can see that there are patterns. That we might now be living with more gadgets than we ever thought possible and more information at our fingertips than we can ever hope to chew through in our heads, but we are still tribal Neanderthals at heart.
Because what will make us truly happy,
does not tend to be things we are lead to believe - like handbags, social media fame, fit bods. No, it seems as if our happiness is very similar to that of our Neanderthal forebears - a close knit community where we feel accepted and included, somewhere safe to live and sleep, a chance to do something every now and then that makes our soul sing.
The wondrous thing also is that when we feel happy and safe, we do not tend to want for much apart from the above. We all have to rumble with this idea that we should judge others for the bright new shiny things that they have, be that new cars, shiny new phones or brand new sneakers. Let's take a step back, and a deep breath, deep enough to connect with that instinct that they say sits in our gut. Let's listen to that little mogwai. Let's be very careful what we try to feed it or expose it to, because it is wiser than we give it credit for.
What springs to my mind is the fall of the Ancien Regime, late 18th C France. Where the aristocracy was bleeding their country dry in pursuit of feeding an intoxicating obsession with extreme artificiality. There were courtly dictates enforcing the most conspicuous consumption ever seen before and since (until possibly now). This was set up as a system by a Machiavellian genius of a King (Louis XIV) as a way to keep to aristocracy so busy that they would not have a chance to plot against him.
It was then developed to turn the royals and court into something MORE than anyone else around them. They strew themselves with 'star dust', turned themselves into celestial bodies, and everthing they did into an unattainble spectacle to warrant their flagrant abuse of all resources around them.
The people were entertained, mystified and awestruck in equal measures - happily letting themselves be bled dry due to the notion that they - by observing, emulating and somewhat being near this spectacle, they would to have access to just the tiniest speckle of stardust...
Until some one said STOP. We are being fooled. Their bodies are just as vile and human as ours. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! They made us loose ours so Off With Theirs.
So, those shiny new things are not stars. Those insanely priced trainers will not turn you into Gods - they will only bleed you dry. And as you slave away, putting extra hours in at work - giving up that precious time you could spend with friends, family, or filling your soul with joy - all so you can buy that shiny new thing. Ask yourself - who am I doing this for?
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