IF YOU'RE CONCERNED ABOUT MATERIALISM TRY THIS

Luky   

IT ALWAYS AMUSES ME TO HEAR PEOPLE SPEAK DISPARAGINGLY OF MATERIALISM.
To listen to some, you'd think the cardinal evil of all times is the fact that people like to surround themselves with comforts.
   It seems ridiculous to me. What is wrong with having the good things of life? My mother said that she never possessed a car in her life. Well, I remember my carless youth and what a bind it was.
   When my parents came to South Africa, they gave up parents, family, home and security, to try their luck in a foreign country where they knew nothing, not even the language.

Silent gratitude
   "We are doing this to give you people better opportunities", they assured us when homesickness overtook them. 
  Today when I drive my car, vacuum my carpets or do the laundry in my automatic washing machine, I thank my parents for giving me such a good deal.

   If it were all to be taken away from me tomorrow, I'd say with Job: "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord."
   But at least I'd have the satisfaction, when looking back, that I never scorned the advances made in technology to improve the mother's lot.

   I'm sure my grandmother who washed by hand for ten children went straight to heaven when she died, but she was the most practical and down to earth old girl I ever knew. 
  I bet if I'd asked her whether to wash for my six in the tub or get a washing machine, she'd have said: "Go for the automatic, Luky. What a question to ask!"

Sweet life
   I have a number of wealthy friends and I love to visit them. 
  I enjoy drinking tea from bone china cups, with golden or silver spoons. 
  I enjoy entering a marble hall and having my feet sink into thick carpets.
   I have to tell you something about these people, though. 

They did not find their money in a little box on their front stoep one morning. 
  They made it through working eighteen hours a day. 
  However, on the principle that you can wear only one outfit at a time, and even two meals a day can make you fat unless you are a farm labourer, I settled for lots of time with my family and worked my 8-hour stint as a necessary evil.

  So do I approve of the inequality between the haves and the have nots? Not at all. 
  But I believe that there are many wealthy people who do a lot of good with their money. 
  If they do not let their left hand know what the right hand does, that does not mean to say that their good works do not alleviate much sorrow and poverty.

Spend - and give
What I want to suggest to all concerned about materialism is:
"Don't cut down on your clothes, or your car, or your labour saving devices. 
  There are many poor people employed in factories, who would starve or lose their self esteem if everyone felt the way you do. 
  Buy what is necessary, thereby stimulating the economy. 
  But first, before you budget at the end of the month, tithe from your salary for those most in need."
  How many takers do you think there would be?