Prada =EQUALS= Nada

     In our culture from a very young age we are taught that the more we obtain and the richer we are the better off we are in this life. Nearly eight months ago, I began to venture down a path that I would have never envisioned myself going down. The road of anti-consumerism. The more I learn of the lack of sustainability in our culture's chosen path the more I despise this constant need for bigger and better things. The consumer has fed into, therefore supported, an endless cycle of consumption. In the attempt to understand where this desire comes from I think back to my younger days.... the moment of thrill that I would have walking out of the store with a new item swinging from hand in a shiny plastic bag. Often times, that new item would be a different version of something I already had cluttering my home. My point is, that it is that fleeting moment of joy that has somehow enamored us.

We know deep down inside that the lack of or abundance of material possessions and money does not create happiness, respect, love, security, or anything that all those commercials insinuate that we will gain if we purchase their product. We are smarter than that!

 

I quickly began to correlate that the less I picked up that remote, crossed the threshold into those automatic doors, and perused the magazines at the grocery store queue...... the less I felt I actually needed. The other day I found myself in a store which I had formerly loved, and I felt ill as I looked around and saw all of these young girls pouring their time, energy, and resources into something so completely pointless. Then I stopped and thought to myself,

"AH! April, you have truly jumped off the hippy deep end!"

But have I?

 

Countless studies have shown that money and material possessions does not make one happy or fulfilled. Studies have actually gone to prove just the opposite, that in fact people that see an increase in their money and possessions report a decrease in their general feelings of happiness and fulfillment. Opening my mailbox this morning I was captured by these bolded red words on an envelope with a return address from Vogue magazine that read:

April, We miss you!

 

 

Dear Vogue-

I bet you do! This is my response to you, I have no intention of renewing my magazine subscription... even if you give me six free issues. I will no longer waste my precious time on this earth filling my brain with the idea that I am less of a person because I don't have a runway worthy handbag or the iPhone87.

Material possessions do not make me.

Yes, I may be blonde... however I am far from dumb. I see how young girls struggle with self image on a daily basis as they look back at themselves in the mirror.... and the message that you send them is one that if they submit then they too will be pretty and acceptable. I call bullshit!

Sincerely,

April Netschke

 

P.S. And by the way, keep your lies away from my young influential daughter! My daughter will know that she is amazing because she has vision, drive, humor, empathy, class, humility, strength, perseverance... not because of what is on her back, what she drives, or what is in her wallet.