Books & Music...

My toddler's first sign language word wasn't "mama" or "dada"--it was "more". Yes, more. Now instead of it being signed, it's spoken incessantly as, "I want more, daddy." Whatever it is, she can't get enough of it.

We're OK with her unquenchable thirst for all things green and vegetable in nature. But it's the more regarding the potato chips she recently discovered that has me somewhat concerned. 

However, it's our culture in general that has a disconnect when it comes to more. Our solution for everything is more. If we're in tough economic times, we see the answer as people need to buy more. If we're feeling unfulfilled, then the answer must be that we need more of ... something.

John R. Ehrenfeld's book Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming Our Consumer Culture takes a look at some of the problems regarding our society's systematic thinking when it comes to regarding things we need and want--or things we think we need when really we just want them ... and more of them:

“Our actions do not correspond to what we seek in life. This term values is as elusive for me as is the concept of need, which I will explore later. Langdon Winner, another critic of modern technology, has pointed out the inadequacy of this term, noting that values is a useful catchall term for ‘cares, commitments, responsibilities, preferences, tastes, religious convictions, personal aspirations, and so forth.’ I believe that all of these collapse into the notion of Being, which frames much of this book. All are manifestations of our humanness.”