The Weight of Our Belongings
How you care for your belongings is a reflection of your feelings towards them. If you are consistently not making the time to care for your belongings–to clean them, mend them, rearrange them again to make them like new–you’re demonstrating to yourself and to the world that those things must not really be important to you. The world will then internalize that fact, and will prevent you from receiving those things you dream of having, the ones you tell yourself and others you would take care of because their worth would warrant proper care.
— Annie Axelrod, Monday’s Meditation: On The Privilege Of Caring For Your Belongings
We live in an age where we are encouraged to purchase and consume, but discouraged from truly owning anything. Gone are the days where you would purchase albums and books. Today, we stream our music and download eBooks. We rent because it's too expensive to buy. Subscription plans are all the rage. It's a weird dichotomy. They want our money but they aren't afraid to let you know - you don't own the things you've used your hard-earned money to purchase.
Lately, I've been noticing something that grates on my nerves - influencers ripping PR packages like rabid animals. I've also started to notice how people in general treat their belongings with a lack of reverence and care. Something's spoilt? Buy a new one. Phone? Thrown around like an afterthought. Skincare and makeup? Let's buy more even though there's no need for another new moisturiser.
I think this carelessness and lack of reverence for our belongings stems from a mixture of a few reasons:
1. The Modern-Day Protestant Emphasis on the Spiritual as Opposed to the Material
In Catholicism and Orthodoxy, the material world is part of/a medium to the spiritual world - relics are seen as sacred, church buildings are used to draw our eyes to the divine, whereas for modern-day Protestants, there is a tendency to prioritise the spiritual over the material world. To most modern-day Protestants, the rosary is frowned upon, and the sacraments of the bread and wine are only mere symbols. Whereas for those of the Catholic faith, the bread and wine become the actual blood and body of Christ, and the rosary, a sacred object for prayer. A simple bread and wine holds much gravity and weight, and the partaking of the Eucharist is a serious and reverent moment. When compared with the Holy Communion of modern-day Protestants, the differences couldn't be more jarring.
Years ago, I once observed a sacrilegious behaviour of a parent when attending a church service (not Mass). When the "wine" was being passed around, the father took a cup for himself and two cups for his child, and proceeded to pass them to him casually before we were all instructed to receive the Holy Communion. The child then downed the "drinks" (which was actually Ribena) way before we were instructed to do so. The lack of reverence was astounding.
2. Over-Consumption/Capitalism
While modern-day Protestants prioritise the spiritual over the material, the general public tend to prioritise the material over the spiritual. We now live in a world where we can get anything we want at any time, and most things are no longer built to last. Back then, things were created and made intentionally - handmade, crafted with elaborate details, but now things are mass produced, created to have a shelf life of only up to a certain years. When things are not created with intention, sometimes it can subconsciously give off the message to consumers that those things are not meant to last. And subconsciously, people will treat it as such.
Social media doesn't help either, it drives people to buy things they don't need and paradoxically, it also drives people to be conscious of their vices. It's utterly ridiculous. Think Project Pan; everything must now be a trend. Saving money must be a trend. Trying to use up what you have must be a trend. Being a minimalist must be a trend. If it's not a trend, people are not driven to take action.
Do you know who cannot afford to follow trends? Those who are not well-off. Even a trend of downsizing and living within a budget is turned into some fun activity for "social awareness". The reality is that while social awareness does make a number of people more aware of their vices, it has also become another form of entertainment. My lifestyle of living within my means has become part of your content to drive up the algorithm so you can get richer while your audience applauds your "effort" to try to empathise with those who are less fortunate than you. What confuses me is why do people need a trend to tell them that something is inherently wrong with their spending habits?
3. Lack of Taste + Knowledge
The saying "money cannot buy taste" is true. You can have lots of money but dress gaudily. You can have money but have horrible discretion in choosing products. Things are more complicated now with marketing and advertising feeding into trends. It's now easier to fool the public into making one's product appear to be luxurious and of quality. But when one has taste and actual knowledge, things are then bought with more intentionality.
But here's the thing, when marketing has gone too far, luxury and mass produced products are sometimes difficult to tell apart. Brands can now easily mimic and copy each other, and they've become as good as their competitors. And despite the recent case of Chinese factories coming out to tell the public of how luxury handbags are made, much of the population is still highly dependent on branding and marketing to stay informed. One of the classic cases of brands succeeding in fooling the public is when individuals actually believe that a product is natural simply because the brand name has the word "natural" in it. When you're highly dependent on immediate and external sources to tell you the value of the product you're buying, you're essentially outsourcing your choices to someone.
Despite living in the age of information, people are more content than ever to remain in their ignorance.
4. Excessive Free Stuff
When influencers or anyone for that matter, regularly get things for free, the likelihood of them appreciating something declines. When it comes to PR packages, sometimes these influencers have to fake their enthusiasm on camera, because what's new has become old. Influencers post pictures of the products to show off their glamorous lifestyle to drive the algorithm and because it's also part of the transaction and contract.
You also hear of stories where influencers purchase food and drinks just for pictures, only to throw them away after posting the photos. Evidence of a sick and depraved culture that doesn't appreciate what they're given.
So you can see, this carelessness and approach to our possessions is a reflection of our values. We like having more things, but we don't value the things we have. And that carelessness is one of the main drivers of our greed. We want more not because we don't have enough. We want more because we fail to see and comprehend the weight of what we have. Marie Kondo, a professional organiser, talks about holding an object to see if it sparks joy - for most people their perception is "does it make me happy?" But that's not what joy is.
Joy + Human Design
And this brings me to the topic of Human Design, because as someone who has Sacral authority, I know what Kondo means. The sacral knowing where the body goes "uh-huh" when I see or pick up an object that brings me joy. It is fast and I don't feel it, but I know it immediately. Of course, I think this comes with practice as well. I don't think if OTHERS will keep it, I ask my body if I should keep it, and my sacral knows. It can be a piece of trash but my sacral will ask me to keep it. Please don't confuse this with hoarding, where hoarders hoard everything that is known to them. In Human Design, the sacral is selective.
Marie Kondo also talks about giving our belongings a home. You don't have to believe that the objects are imbued with a kami to be organised. You'll see how in Catholic and Orthodox churches too - every object has a place. And even in very simple Catholic and Orthodox churches, religious items are prioritised and a certain effort is made to enhance the church interior and they're usually very well taken care of. Whereas in modern-day Protestant churches, most of the items in the church building are just seen as mere objects.
Some Protestants do not believe in having an ornate church, they think that it's a waste of money or resources, much like Le Corbusier, the godfather of modern architecture. They're probably busier than him, prioritising function over form. Why have an ornate building when a simple building can do the job? Then why do we have so many people who love visiting museums where it houses all the old antiques that were once useful? The role of beautiful houses of worship and ornate furniture is akin to what Miley Cyrus "sang" in "Prelude" of her album, Something Beautiful:
But the beauty one finds alone is a prayer that longs to be shared.
Things aren't just created to be used. They are also created to be shared and admired. Notice that Miley is talking about what one finds alone first, not what one finds with others. If something speaks to you deeply and you feel it within your soul, you will have the desire to share it; to put it on display. It is not enough to gather or congregate and talk over diabetes-inducing doughnuts in the foyer of a plain church building. Sometimes sharing can be a period of silence and awe at the beauty one is surrounded with. When we downgrade our buildings and belongings to function over form, we are also essentially saying that what we own and believe is of little value and sacredness, thus the endless programmes and activities in churches to compensate for the lack of value they bring. This ties back to the point: if you truly care about the things you own, you will make the effort to maximise its potential. You might argue that you attend church only for Jesus (whatever that means), but that is besides the point. This is contrary to sharing on social media, where things are designed to move fast and attract engagement. In contrast, you can enter an ornate church building or your own home, and admire and be in awe of it all every single time.