I feel like in my society, in America, that I have been taught that more is better. I also feel that certain behavior of people that seem to do excessive things or seem to go to extremes in some people’s minds, is condoned or tolerated because of the attitude, “they do it because they can.” Being able to do something and doing it are two different things. Every time I make such a statement, it might be interpreted as a judgement, I understand that. And because of that, I have been challenged, first because other’s have said I was making a judgement, and because, since I did not have the money to do what I was “judging,” I have been told to see what happens when I am in a similar position like the people who did what I was supposedly judging.
In regard to the judging, yes, I understand that it may come across that way, and maybe sometimes it has been that. I am willing to look, and have been looking at that, because, after all, I am human, a product of my society and also have my lessons to learn. Granted. But if I were judging anything, it wasn’t the behavior of the person per se, but of a society that says it’s okay. Maybe we shouldn’t stop someone from going into excesses, but to look at it and say it’s okay, when we might be wanting to look at it with compassion, because, maybe, just maybe, the person doing such behavior has a serious problem or need, and society is just condoning the behavior instead of possibly helping the person.
As far as not having enough money to do what some people do which I could consider excessive, I thought of a few examples today that I think everyone could relate to. I have enough money to light up my living room like a stadium, in comparison. I can do that, but I don’t. I love light, lots of it, but there is such a thing as too much light, in that particular environment. For that matter, I have enough money to fill my living room with furniture until you can’t get anymore furniture in. At some point, as I was accumulating furniture, I would start getting diminishing returns. I like people so much that I want them to have a place to sit in my home. But the more furniture I stuff in there, before long, the furniture would be sitting on top of the furniture and there would be no room for the people. I could go on with crazy examples, but the point is, there is a point where too much is too much, and unnecessary is unnecessary.
In fact, if a TV crew came and video taped my living room with blinding light and with furniture stacked up to the ceiling, people would see this on TV and think I had a problem and would laugh at me, feel sorry for me, or hopefully want to help me. I wonder why then we might be looking up to, or defending, or just not noticing any issue with some people’s spending and their excesses. I am not going to be specific as to what I think may or may not be an excess, and again, I don’t want to judge the people, because we all have our path, but I do think society could maybe see what is behind the excesses and collectively we can send love to the people that have the need to indulge in ways that are not necessarily healthy to the person themselves, the society as a whole, or the planet, instead of sending encouragement.
Then again, come to think of it, for all I know, there are people who live in poorer parts of the world, than my part of the world, who look at me and my life as excessive. And who knows, on some level, maybe they are right too. Something else for me to think about today.