You can't always vet what you want

If you haven't noticed, it's rather difficult to live in the 21st century without getting sucked into a cycle of wanting things that you might not need, or needing things that you might not want. Welcome to the system!

I like to think that I'm different...that I'm not as susceptible to the endless pressure to buy new things and discard the old ones. But the cycle of shopping and upgrading is built into most of the products we buy and the culture we live in.

For example, my main computer is pretty old. I bought it in 2001. It's got plenty of hard drive space left because I upgraded the internal hardware several times. But now it's getting slow and soon it will be a dinosaur, because its processor is already extinct. It has all the software I love to use, but soon those applications will be useless, too, because surreptitious updates will render them inoperable.

So now I find myself wanting a new computer....again. I don't want to want a new computer. They're expensive. My kitchen appliances are cheaper and they last forever in comparison. And until recently, televisions were the same way.

Imagine a world where every appliance, when plugged into the wall, gets delivered an update from its manufacturer that makes it stop functioning properly. "Hey, what's wrong with the coffeemaker this morning? It worked fine yesterday." "Sorry. The latest version of the coffeemaker brewing system requires you to update the wiring in your home. And also the shape of the outlets are going to change, so you'll need new plugs."

And televisions. I have a really old TV that won't die. It's square. It has a huge, bulky tube. I don't really want it anymore. But I'm trying to avoid the obvious next step: the flat-panel, widescreen TV. It's not that I don't think they're gorgeous and sleek: I do. It's not like I don't look at them often and wish I had one....are you kidding? It's that I'm trying not to get rid of yet another thing that isn't broken just so I can buy it again in a new package.

I don't want to spend my life shopping. I want to spend it enjoying what I have. Sure, I like to browse...but I want to do it on my terms ... not because I'm a puppet.

I've spent enough time living in Europe to enjoy simplicity in life. To not waste things. To not even want things. To expect change to unfold over time. But in American culture, it's hard to find a niche to accommodate this perspective.