Things

I have this terrible reoccurring nightmare.

It is especially haunting this time of year.

It starts with this crazy wizard casting a spell on me. He’s a lot like Harry Potter except older, dashingly handsome, and therefore all the more sinister and difficult to resist.

He casts this spell on me and I start doing crazy things: hoarding things in any and all available space in my apartment, coveting other people’s electronic gadgets. I take all of my money and fruitlessly spend it on things that fall to pieces in my hands. I chase after shadows named ‘bigger’ and ‘better.’ I make a giant list in my head and rank myself according to what numbers are in my bank account and I hang my head in shame or puff my chest in pride depending on what machine on wheels takes me from here to there. The nightmare always ends with the same scene. I find myself running in a huge race full of faceless people and I cannot remember why I started running or who I am competing with, but all I know is I am exhausted and lost in a sea of faces. So I stop running and all around me the people push me out of their way and run past. Leaving me all alone. Empty handed.

And then I wake up.

The thing is, this isn’t a nightmare.

This is how I live.

This is what I turn into around the holidays, despite my best efforts to resist.

Because, unfortunately, we live in a world of consumerism, a world of stuff, of things.

A world where material possessions rule and where we are inundated hourly by things we should be buying, collecting, hoarding, boasting.

But as we look towards the next year, I pray that 2010 is not marked by the tangible things we accrued.

My hope is that I don’t look back on 2010 and remember it only as the year I upgraded from a PC to a Mac, or bought a new car.

I pray that instead I spend next year investing in things that matter. Things that cannot depreciate. Things that no one can take from me.

Imagine that.

Imagine if this year our resolutions revolved around things that cannot be quantified. Immeasurable, simple things that make us better, not wealthier.

So, Cheekies, that is my prayer for you in the year to come. Moments to breathe and see with clear eyes that which should truly be prized.

Happy New Year.