Another cultural force leading us toward consumerism is specialization, which goes much deeper than suburbia. Al describes it like this, “Most of us have jobs that segment out one particular task or area of production or service. Since we cannot easily barter our work as dry cleaners or accountants to obtain oil changes or spaghetti sauce, we now have money as the common unit of commerce and trade . . . . Thus it is nearly impossible for any one of us to create rather than consume or purchase any of the items we use and rely on in daily life.”
Wendell Berry, in his essay “Living in the Future: The ‘Modern’ Agricultural Ideal,” would agree, seeing this segmentation of society damaging in our areas of our country.
“I have already spoken of the highly simplified role of the modern household with respect to the production and preparation of food: it has set itself increasingly aside from the production and preparation and become more and more a place for the consumption of food produced and prepared elsewhere. But this setting aside of the nest or residence from the sources of life is more general and even more serious than that would indicate. The modern home, even more than the government and universities, has institutionalized the divisions and fragmentations of modern life” (The Unsettling of America, pg. 51).
I remember my growing up places as being centers of production, allowing for both creativity and creation. We always had a large garden, and even when I was very young, my parents set aside a small space for me to grow some vegetables. (It wasn’t until later in life that I appreciated the work involved with gardening, however!) The food we couldn’t eat during the growing season was canned or frozen for winter, and must of the things we ate every day were prepared from their most basic ingredients. But more than that, must of my clothing was homemade; even some of our furniture was built by my dad or handed down from previous relatives who had constructed things with care. And I was given great latitude to create from paper and wood and string all the wonderful things children are wont to make.
This kind of lifestyle was one suggestion that Al shared in The Suburban Christian for countering the cultural influence of consumerism. Rather than being chiefly identified as consumers, we should try to become creators or producers in as many ways as we can. This not only takes us out of the consumer cycle, which always has a newer or better product for us to buy. It also helps us bear God’s image to each other and the culture at large.
Of course we aren’t all going to be able to raise chickens or spin wool, but we can exercise our creativity by creating and building things, even things we need. I have a small garden which will provide for some of my own food over the summer; I also try to make my own bread when possible. My mom makes all of her own greeting cards (like Al’s wife, as he mentions in the book). And my dad has made several pieces of furniture for his own home and mine. I have friends who knit and crochet, making practical items for themselves and others. Another friend made all the window coverings in her home.
As Al says, “All of us have different ways that we express our creativity; all of us can be makes of one thing or another” (TSC, pg. 88).
Photo of Verray’s working hands by me
SUBURBAN CHRISTIAN LINKS:
LL’s “That Creativity Thing”
Al’s “Consumer Culture vs. Christian Creativity”
Ted — Thanks for the “Thinking Blogger” award. I’m sorry I haven’t responded sooner. I sort of got in a fog of life, and haven’t been on the computer as much. I appreciate your kind words. Ted, I also really appreciated your thoughts about living more communally. What would that look like, do you think?
Melissa — Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments, and normally would have responded earlier, but things have been a little crazy. Tell me, what are some things you and your husband are doing differently?
Stacy — Your right. The packaging is what gets me too. I am recycling as much as possible, but I’m also trying to precycle — avoiding the packaging when possible. It’s amazing how hard that is, though.
Charity,
I realized how much we have become a throw away culture when I was living in a village in China. We literally only produced two grocery bags of trash every week to 10 days (for a family of six), but that was huge compared to what our neighbors produced. They reused everything. I also only bought food that had to be cooked or used immediately, because that’s all they had. While it makes life more difficult in terms of going to the market every day and making everything from scratch, we came to love the simple life very much. The next time I was in the states, I was blown away by how much we throw away, especially in terms of packaging. I felt very guilty about that. However, I have come to see that it’s OK to have things. 🙂 I do like your thoughts on being creative and productive, even though we are in a suburb. Giving back and leaving things better off than when we came….those are important values.
I like this series. And thanks, Al, for the thoughtful book and giving me something to think about!
Hi Charity…I’m a new reader. Your blog entries really resound with what my husband and I are trying to do in/with our lives right now. I especially enjoyed your “Car Talk”. Thank God for the grace to change!!! And thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Melissa in Illinois
Charity, I did award you with a Thinking Blogger Award, but the e-mail on your link did not work. http://communityofjesus.blogspot.com/2007/05/thinking-blogger-award.html
Charity, Good thoughts here from Berry and yourself.
I guess I’m confortable to find my creative niche and try to do it. But to be stretched to be creative so as to produce for necessities, I must confess I’m not either keen of or good at.
I do miss living in the country. We also had a large garden growing up; I can still feel the heat and humidity as well as the bugs we would be swatting at.
Ours is a different culture now, just as is the point of Berry’s book. We would perhaps need a grass roots movement back to a more kind of communal working and sharing with others. It would be good if many of us could begin doing something like this on a small scale.
LL and Al — Your insights are great. I’ve felt them in my life, but have never gotten to the point of articulating them very well. It does seem that the things I do each day just as part of my life do certainly have very spiritual connections to Jesus in my doing them well and continuing to do them.
Love the discussion!
Berry’s The Unsettling of America is currently in my piles of books by my bed! I haven’t gotten very far into it, but I’ve appreciated many of his insights thus far. Good stuff.
And I agree with L.L. – I think a lot of previous generations didn’t practice “spiritual disciplines” per se because the nature of daily life and work was far more holistic and productive overall. When we are disconnected from productive, meaningful work, we try to artificially resuscitate our spiritual lives by adopting various spiritual practices and disciplines.
When reading Sacred Rhythms (which is really about finding ways to connect with God), I suddenly had this notion that much of our preoccupation with spiritual disciplines and so forth may be related to a deep discontent with our lives, related to this issue.
Feeling disconnected and purposeless, we look for ever more ways to fulfill ourselves spiritually. But, perhaps our fulfillment might be found in the simple connection that “bread labor” provides (the nature of such connection could really be a post of its own).