Why are we buying so much?

Just read a story about a disciple asking the Buddha for a new bedsheet. Upon being asked, he said he used the old sheet to make window curtains, the curtains to make napkins, the napkins were used to make mops, the mops being in tatters were used to make wicks for oil-lamps! Whew! That was actually a trip down memory lane. Why? Our older generation actually has used old saris to make curtains. I have made Indian dresses out of old saris too. We have seen our elders buying vegetables using cloth bags sewn from old clothes. Now why have we become so obsessed with showing off our buying capabilities ? I wonder if we were better off with less spending power just a few decades ago. 

  • There was no need to shout out to our elders to use less plastic, because they anyway did. 
  • Plastic tiffin boxes have replaced the old steel and brass-lined lunch-boxes. 
  • We never had to worry about plastics or colours leeching into our foods.
  • Plastic disposables have replaced the beautiful plates and bowls made of leaves.
  • Siblings now hardly wear hand-me-downs because of changing fashions.
  • We never bothered about evening wear, gym wear, night wear, party wear, office wear, just our uniforms and a few clothes so carefully bought for our birthdays, New Years day and Diwali.
  • Replace the word clothes with shoes - how many ever heard of sports shoes, dress shoes, beach-sandals, etc? Nah, in my childhood, it was a pair of shoes for school and a pair of sandals for everywhere else.

Do you agree friends? What's your idea to buy less and save the earth?

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