Now I’m Mad Again (The Power of Not Now)
I don’t know much about that Eckhart Tolle character beyond the facts that he writes best-sellers, Oprah likes him and his name is funny. But I feel a seething hatred brewing for The Power of Now.
I just landed on a blog called Evolving Beings, which purports to ’share wisdom and spiritual enlightenment.’ I patiently read a long post about someone deciding to rid herself of her jewelry collection. She goes on and on about how your “stuff” is really dead weight, just a product of materialism, not essential to Who You Really Are. So I’m reading and reading and then I get to the part where she takes the jewelry to a pawn shop and sells it for a fraction of what it’s worth.
What the fuck?!
Please join me in thinking, What a crock of shit! Is selling your jewelry a way to rid yourself of the burden of materialism? And to a pawn shop! A business that profits off the misery of the desperate? Why didn’t this Spirituality Seeker just donate her jewelry to a charity? In my own neighborhood, there are thrift-shops that benefit AIDS, cancer research, drug rehabilitation and homeless shelters.
Godammit, I am enraged by this example of hypocrisy and stupidity. I hereby launch my own movement called The Power of Not Now™ . You heard it here first. You can join up today, or you can wait until I devise its 5 Sacred Tenets. The first will be (duh!) “Why do now what you can put off until later?”
The second will be “Hang on to Your Jewelry!”
Tags: jewelry, spirituality, stupidity
May 26th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I was at a spiritual retreat where they had a ceremony to go re-bury your crystals in the earth (this is when any self-respecting new-ager clanked around with healing crystals) so they would be returned to their natural habitat. I wanted to scream “Bury your car, bitch! Steel comes from the earth, too!”
May 26th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Ha!
May 26th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Hmm, her thought process does seem a bit wacky to me.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:54 am
A pawn shop? Really? Jackass.
I actually just donated a HUGE bag of jewelry to a local charity. (Not to be less materialistic, though — I just never wear it, and I’m trying to scale down on my junk hoarding since I’m moving to a smaller place).
But then I went out and bought an awesome watch — all the little chainlinks are skull & crossbones. So much for the scaling back.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Well you know *I* think that’s supremely stupid!
May 28th, 2008 at 3:52 am
“I’m glad you’re glad about my ability to contribute.”
Best closing line to a blog comment ever.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Haha. I’d never heard of that book until yesterday when my new therapist suggested it. I don’t keep up with Oprah and I would never read self help crap anyway, so it’s not like I would have picked it up. But I’m glad to know what idiocy it’s precipitating!!! Thank god you exposed it!
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
I’m selling my jewelry collection in an attempt to rid myself of the materials too. I also donate to charity. Oh, wait, I make and sell jewelry…I guess this is not what you’re talking about.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Wait…I’ve sold jewelry on Ebay….will that count?