Stuff

Our economy is suffering because people aren’t buying enough stuff. On December 31 my wife, daughter and I took a trip to one of our local malls. They happily shopped while I took my daily walk through the two levels of shops. I looked in the windows and watched all the interesting people strolling by and even made several forays into stores. I’m not a stuff person. When I get into a store, all the stuff overwhelms me and I have this mad desire to be up in the mountains or by the ocean instead of being confronted by shelves of clothes and electronic gadgets. I’m constantly amazed at all the stuff you can buy. Who wants all these things? And when I do need something like a new pair of tennis shoes, I want to go right into the first store, try on the first thing I see, have it fit, pay and get out of the store. Part of this may be a male thing. I read that women relax by browsing through stores. Browsing through stores raises my stress level. I like browsing along mountain trails to relax. So adding to my closet of clothes, buying new electronic toys or lugging home furniture has no appeal to me. Buying books on the other hand, that’s entirely different.