the world on a receipt

i realize this might be a hypocritical post when i plan on bribing community members this weekend with food, but we’ll put that aside for a moment. i wanted to write this for a while.

so there you have it. our world. officially in a shopping cart. is this what we’ve really come to? it makes me sort of sympathize with the odd and slightly disturbing youtube video that i ran across last week. i saw this billboard on my way to a coffee shop in a town that any chattanoogan or austinite would be at a loss for the lack of java joints. i actually stopped on the sidewalk and put my bag down to take this picture and laugh for a moment. its not like this is a new idea. a totally materialistic, capitalistic society. we are aware this. its just not often that we get to see it in such a self deprecating way. its like consumerism making fun of itself. but really! this makes me wonder what the advertising developers were thinking…(btw, banco vimencia is really the same company as western union so we’re not dealing with some po’dunk company with a shortage funds to buy creativity). maybe people do want to feel like it is in the realm of possibility to buy everything they could ever want or need and this is now the picture of satisfaction. they should have just made a globe of paper mache with cash-money and taken a picture. but i guess the shopping cart was a little cheaper…

lets bring it back to the context for a second. i would say that the people i interact with are poorer than i have ever worked/lived with. but their attitude towards material things often seems to inhibit them from raising themselves out of a fragile situation. everything american and english is coveted and revered. its a materialism that tastes imported, but worse. the t-shirts people buy as their “american goods” are ubsurd things like old cub scout uniforms worn by old men and girls walking down the street with a “I’m Looking For a Kiss or a ****”, and when i ask them if they know what it says, they often have no idea (and i just pretend not to be able to translate some or most of it…).

its a culture of materialism directly imported from the U.S. that i am terribly ashamed of. is this is the effect we have on people in developing countries? my friends who have been to africa would say yes. in countless situations, i have encountered people simply looking for a way to get something out of me because i am white and american. this makes interviews or attending church hard sometimes. i have been incredibly blessed to see contentment in the eyes of many here, but that has also come with a envious hunger in the eyes of others. two extremes. very sad.

some of us have a lot, most have much less. no matter what you have. take a moment and practice being content with what you have right now. take a break from your venti triple shot caramel macchiato from starbucks and just make a cup of grocery store coffee. it’ll help.

(if you were curious i still went to the coffee shop, fairly free of materialistic angst, rationalizing that i was just going there to have a place to work because the Santo Domingo library is under construction. btw, coffee shops are normally my bane back in the states, so i’m talking to myself as well)