For most of us now, more is less

  • By Sarri Gillman Herald Columnist
  • Monday, October 22, 2007 6:55pm
  • Life

Sometimes I feel like I am living in a culture that is addicted to excessiveness.

While we get constant information that Americans are obese, I think we are all suffering from a poetic obesity, not just obese in our body size.

We are obese in how we live.

We work too much, we drive too much, we waste too much, we drink too much, we spend too much time on the computer, we indulge our children too much, we spend too much money, we ignore too much information and we are too busy.

The sad truth is that this is not some marketing ploy. I believe we have a tendency toward excessiveness. Whatever it is that we do, we have a tendency to overdo it.

I think we all suffer some form of excessiveness. It’s like a closet condition that we don’t want to talk about. Sure, it’s fine to pick one thing, such people who are overweight. They have an obesity problem.

But what about the rest of us?

What about all the rest of our excessive behavior?

Where is the lap band for people who keep running up their credit cards?

Where is the shut off switch for people who are spoiling their children with too much stuff and not enough expectations?

I am looking around at our waste and overindulgence and thinking we need a serious movement against excessiveness.

I have been watching myself closely and really questioning what makes me think I need more of something.

I notice that I think excessively.

I’m trying to not get caught up in excessive behavior, but it’s like walking around in sinking sand. Just when I’m certain I caught myself at it, I find I have dropped into another sink hole.

The forces of capitalism in our culture constantly tell us we are not OK, our clothes, our homes, our hairstyles, our cars will be embarrassingly outdated, and we must do something about it.

It’s not just embarrassment; we are encouraged to be afraid of living without excessiveness.

It is everywhere I look.

Try living for a while without doing things in excess. Pay attention and find out what you are doing too much.

Excessive living is the same as overeating. We never feel full and even when we are full, that will not change the fact that we are now overweight.

To change being overweight we have put our attention on living differently.

I am assuming the same is true to combat being excessive and indulgent.

When we live excessively we think we are getting more of something. In fact, we getting less.

Just like when we are overweight: Yes, we are getting more food, but we are getting less healthy.

Living in excess will attack our health and well being.

There is a lot of freedom, health and joy to be found in getting control of excessiveness.

Sarri Gilman is a freelance writer living on Whidbey Island. Her column on living with meaning and purpose runs every other Tuesday in The Herald. She is a therapist, a wife and a mother and has founded two nonprofit organizations to serve homeless children. You can e-mail her at features@heraldnet.com.

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