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!”
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!”
Ha!
Hmm, her thought process does seem a bit wacky to me.
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.
Well you know *I* think that’s supremely stupid!
“I’m glad you’re glad about my ability to contribute.”
Best closing line to a blog comment ever.
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!
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.
Wait…I’ve sold jewelry on Ebay….will that count?