Flash sales — the kind where you have to buy now or never — have the power to wake up in us this incredible need to buy something we don’t need. It is impressive how every new offer I see on the internet or on TV creates in me a need I didn’t know existed. That new TV stand, the video game, the motorcycle, the furniture, the dinnerware… We are the most ad-bombarded generation that has ever existed. Kids know every tech release by heart, and planned obsolescence becomes obvious with every new festival of smartphone launches.
I remember how much I projected my own collections. I wanted to have collections of CDs, video games, Shell-station Ferraris, action figures and books. I had boxes and boxes of books, dreamed of a shelf to display them, had every (10-real) Ferrari from the Shell station. I always wanted more, always wanted “my office” full of those trinkets, of stuff… few times did I add up how much these things cost.
In 2013, I moved into the apartment of my dreams, in Batel, an upscale neighborhood in Curitiba. I walked to and from the office. Had lunch at home and walked back to work… my life was perfect… until 4 months later I boxed up “my life,” left it in storage and came to spend 4 to 6 months in the United States. I always use the joke: it was me, my wife, two suitcases and a dog. That was it, 7 years of marriage summed up in that. I remember thinking about how much I was leaving behind, how many things…
We came here, my wife and I, with money very tight, having to decide every small move. Our first apartment had a living room and a bedroom, and that was it — there was no room for “stuff.” We bought a sofa, a bed and a table, with only two chairs. We lived in a tiny place, with no things, but I was starting to discover that life was less about things. That apartment was on the famous Hollywood Boulevard, next to the Dolby Theatre… we walked to a hill nearby and sat looking at all of Los Angeles on one side and the Hollywood sign on the mountain on the other. We saw Paul McCartney play live on our street, discovered new restaurants, lots of them, of all kinds.
Today, a year later, it has been 3 weeks since we moved into the new apartment here in Los Angeles, and I have a closet with 4 boxes of “junk” I bought, action figures, video games, blu-rays and other things. These 4 boxes I haven’t opened in 3 weeks. Honestly, I don’t need to open them, they are boxes of stuff I don’t need, but cursed consumerism made me buy them!
More and more I discover that I don’t need things. I’d rather have an empty house and a passport full of stamps. I’d rather have a simpler dining table and have dinner in different places, every week, in different cities, different dishes…
I live in another reality, and all of this is still very new to me. My grandfather planned the table he would buy for his living room. He bought solid wood, planned the size, and that table has been in his house for over a decade, the house he has lived in since I was born. Meanwhile, I have changed tables 4 times in the last 20 months; my grandmother lives in the same house she has lived in since I was born, I have lived in 6 houses in the last 24 months.
This Black Friday I don’t want the discounts on games or electronics, or at least, I want to not want them.
I don’t want stuff… my money isn’t everything, people are more important than it is. What interests me is no longer accumulating many goods, but being able to live the best of every moment — whether eating something tasty at the cafeteria or boarding a flight.
My wish this Black Friday is to learn that what you take from this life is the life you live.