The Dissatisfaction Propagation

  It's been a few months since returning to Canada, and while there is an ease to slipping back into one's home country, I'm also feeling bombarded.

  I'm bombarded by commercials and advertising, and manipulated by marketers. It has become very apparent how we are programmed to consume in this place. In Central America, I bought crafts from local artisans, I appreciated the workmanship and beauty of their creations. I purchased because I thought it was beautiful, not because I was told it was beautiful.

  We are being told what to like and not to like on a daily basis, and I don't like it. I've had to do a bit of shopping lately and I want to buy items that do not have to be quickly replaced and that will stand the test of time. There are items that we need and want but I'm trying to stay away from what's trending. Are you aware of how difficult it is to stay away from trends? Companies want to keep us consuming, and so they create trends. Once that trend has past, they move on to the next, leaving us feeling dissatisfied with the last so that we must purchase the latest in order to ease the discomfort of dissatisfaction. We must have the new in order to feel our best, that we fit in, are as good as, or better than others. Advertisers appeal to our egos and for the most part, like true egomaniacs, we soak it all in. Look around at how many people have the same haircut, facial hair, style of dress, even the way they pose for a picture. Can you identify which colours are prominent, what style of furniture? If you find yourself drawn to those things, you should know that you've been programmed, I'm just saying...

  We are instruments, and mass marketers are strumming us like fiddles, we are playing the song they want us to play. So how do we free ourself from the fiddler? We need to think about the way advertising is coming in to our lives. Once we realize how we are being influenced, we can find ways to get a break from it, and stop thinking about 'things'. For me that means spending time in nature, away from the billboards, electronic devices, flyers.  Consuming isn't making us happy, and it's not supposed to, that's the point. More is not the answer, and I want to hear a different song, for crying out loud! Quebec has some beautiful trees so I'm heading out to the woods and listening to the sounds of nature, the birds, the wind, the crunch of leaves. I'm shutting down the fiddler, and putting on a different song. Here's a few photos of beautiful Quebec.

Better than a fidget spinner, am I right?