My home has been on my nerves lately. One kitchen cupboard is always at risk of avalanche while my clothes closet needs help too. The desk needs attention and I need to tidy the bathroom drawers – again. Didn’t I just do that?
I am not a materialist person at all. I upgraded my phone a couple of years ago because the old one had a battery issue, not because I wanted the latest and greatest. Designer labels mean nothing to me. I like vintage and antique things that have character and that don’t look like the bland decor that everyone sells today. Still, I don’t yearn for that stuff – I just enjoy it.
Despite all this, I somehow have become a servant to my things.
This has been on my mind lately and the prompt for this train wreck of thought is kind of ridiculous. My Roku tv recently let me know that there’s now a Little House on the Prairie channel.
Remember the hit show starring Michael Landon as Charles Ingalls and child actor Melissa Gilbert as his daughter Laura? The show was based on the popular Little House novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
The show seems to run 24/7 and has brought to my world a sense of wholesomeness I didn’t know I needed.
I’m not a big tv watcher but do like to turn it on for noise in the house sometimes. More and more lately I find myself sitting and watching as this pioneer family faces whatever challenges come their way. Characters like the nasty Mrs Olsen and her bratty daughter Nelly annoy and torture the good folks of Walnut Grove, a reminder that mean people have always existed in this world.
It’s like the television version of comfort food. Yet, it’s thought provoking too. One episode features a traveling salesman who is peddling what they call a talking machine. Invented by Thomas Edison, this machine records and plays back sounds like music and people speaking. It was a novelty and a marvel for all who gathered round for a demonstration.
Another episode depicts the introduction of telephones in the village while another illustrates the scarcity of books. There was no public library and books were too expensive for most people to purchase so they were coveted possessions. Learning was a privilege and the opportunity to do so was meaningful to many.
Over the weekend, there was an episode that showed the family excitedly preparing for Christmas. While they admired items in Olsen’s general store, they plotted and schemed to maximize their meager dollars and cents to buy or make gifts for their family.
It was touching to see the youngest admire a tin foil Christmas star at the store and to see Mr Olsen sell it to her for a penny when it really cost five times that much. He was a nice man, that Mr Olsen.
Watching has reminded of how much we have gained over the decades since this show was set and much we have lost as well.
We have everything. We have access to all the books and information we could need or want but so many people choose ignorance over learning and mindless scrolling over doing anything productive at all.
The average American has so much stuff they hardly know what they own and don’t get excited at the thought of giving or receiving a gift. Case in point- It’s May and I’m already dreading the interrogation involving what I want for Christmas. I certainly am not excited or coveting any item in any store.
There’s so little joy and mystery left in our world.
There’s also little room for boredom and for the creativity that’s born of it. When was the last time you just sat and let your mind wander? To daydream? How often do you stand in line at the store and people watch or allow yourself to be bored? There are days that I have no free time at all, no stolen minutes to just sit and think or to relax my brain. There’s no time to be bored.
Where do you think inventions come from or how great books are written? There must be boredom and time to think. What is to become of us if we are so busy doing that we have no time to dream?
When was the last time you experienced wide eyed joy? For me, it sometimes happens when I’m out adventuring and finding myself in new to me places. It certainly doesn’t happen at the purchase of new shoes or when someone offers me a stick of gum. There’s a Christmas episode of Little House where the children are each gifted a tin cup and a peppermint stick of their own. All I could think about was the cupboard full of glasses, coffee mugs and water bottles I have accumulated over the years.
While I feel gratitude for this easier life of mine, I feel a little sad we are so unaware of how much we have and of how far we have come. We all might be happier if we were more conscious of how others have lived and of all we are so fortunate to have.
