RE: Sustainability for Kids: consumption
But “happiness through consumption” seems to be our modern-day motto. And this is a motto we've learned.
Your writing here is potent, and it is nicely supported by your animated gif that turns "BEAUTY" into "BUY" and "EAT". Makes a deep impression on me this morning, as I wrestle with my own consumption patterns, and my own tendency to draw magnetically toward external beauty. Really, I know that a deeper satisfaction comes from my drawing toward inner beauty, and inner satiation (satisfying the innermost desires), and working to cultivate that inner beauty in myself and others.
Yes, and I see how important it is to understand and to model healthy consumption for today's kids. Sustainability is one side of this, and another side is: well-being. Right now, my family of five is overwhelmed with Christmas sweet treats, for example, and what do we do with all the abundance of sugar? Do we indulge in the sweetness of life? Do we treat each item as a treat, appreciating the tasty morsels alongside a healthy amount of food that nourishes the kids? Do we discard the sweets entirely, and focus on food that helps them to grow? Somewhere in there is a delicious balance that helps us to be safe, strong, and happy, living well.
Thank you so much for reading @cabelindsay! The main point I'd like to get across isn't that consumption is bad, but that over-consumption or consumption before production can lead to problems. Hopefully that emphasis will come out more as the series goes on. So I wouldn't say Christmas sweets are necessarily bad. But eating them should be secondary to more productive activities. The consumerism I'll be writing about in this Sustainability for Kids series has come about primarily because government economic policies have taught Americans just the opposite: consume first and foremost for the good of the country.
#truth. Thanks for your specificity, regarding your message, and I agree with you that there's a societal pressure to buy, buy, buy, because of the "More is better" attitude, and this illusion is worsened by public policies, big business, advertising... Thankfully, Steemit is working well to dissolve this illusion, by bringing light to the issues, and bringing freedom through free thinking. Yeah, I see consumption as a natural action, so I'm really talking about a specific "heaviness" of over-consumption being an issue for our family, and for me. I'm working on it inside myself, and seeing that over-indulgence has many angles. I'm thinking there's a remedy for this: "enoughness." Affirmation: I am enough. I have enough. We're ok just as we are. Thanks for inspiring me and allowing me to think out loud.
Oh, thank you for sharing your thoughts. There's a section in my economics book for kids on Food Economics that addresses some of what you describe, and one solution for over-consumption, especially as it relates to food, is the idea of marginal utility. With each bite we eat (the last bite is the marginal one, out at the margin) our utility goes down because we're getting fuller. The first bite of cake tastes wonderful but the 100th (latest marginal) bite of cake would nauseate you. That's a function of diminishing marginal utility or diminishing marginal returns. Once kids understand that function, it changes how they perceive consumption.
Jeeze, that's a great life lesson right there. Thanks, I'll run with that! Thinking I'll introduce the idea right now, as I'm about to sit down to lunch with the kids. I might change the words from "Marginal Utility" to something more kiddie, if I can think of another expression. "Less is More"? "First bite is the best bite"? Hm. I'll keep searching.
OK, we had the talk. Our 8-year-old listened really well, and I'm not sure if the other two kids (5 and 3) grasped it. Basically, I told them the first bite may be most rewarding because it satisfies hunger, and fills that craving for adventure. The 100th bite is a good reminder to check-in and assess what's enough. We also talked about blessing up the first bite and eating that one slowly to really cherish it, taste it, experience it.