Free Stuff

Free Stuff

I like free stuff. I like the idea of free stuff, anyway. Most everyone responds to an offer of free, or they are at least willing to take a look. Probably the most eye catching word in advertising is “free”.

After a while too much stuff of any sort gets to be too much stuff, however, then you need space. Space for your stuff. Then you can set your stuff free, and someone else maybe will get some free stuff from you. I like the idea of the free box, Buy Nothing Day, and groups that circulate stuff to help people to share stuff they no longer want. 

There is something compelling and deep about getting free stuff. The free breakfast picked on your morning walk of blackberries that grow by the path. The free taste sample at the food booth. That chair left out by the side of the road that is just right for the kitchen table if you just tighten a screw. (Maybe I can paint flowers all over it. If I don’t like how it comes out, I can just give it away.)

I even love the beauty of the colorful leaf in the fall that I find on the ground, or that pebble or stone. A shaman would say if you impulsively pick up that particular rock you find on your path, it is, for you, a power rock. 

Today’s haul of free stuff from my morning walk includes a special, beautiful acorn. Perhaps it will sit in my house, being beautiful, for a while, then maybe I will plant it somewhere. There are a few little oak trees around here that I probably planted; they have sprung up with no oak trees nearby. 

There is also a little eye I picked up, the clear plastic kind with a black disk that rolls around when you shake it. It is dented from having been stepped on. Probably fell off of some toy. There is another eye like that on the dashboard of my car now as well. They remind me to keep my eyes on the road. 

Many artists have been inspired by free stuff, even trash. There is a challenge in trying to turn ugliness into beauty; colorful bits of plastic are ugly by the roadside; but assembled into art, say, a plastic rainbow, they have a new incarnation. Some people do find this beautiful. 

But there is a dark side. At the risk of sounding an old cliche, there is no free stuff. Chasing after free stuff is self destructive and wasteful of our time, energy, our planet, and each other.

Maybe plastic garbage art is a way of raising awareness about all the stuff we throw away, like that plastic; it never really goes away. Indeed, art can be sad, poignant. Or maybe it is a tacky way to justify all this disposable stuff we make. I know some people want art made from the finest wood, or precious gems from deep in the earth, or made of pure gold. This is considered good taste. But is it? Maybe this sort of art is tackiest of all, since it makes the world uglier with deforestation and gratuitous mining.

We have, as a species, been loving free stuff for a very long time. At this point, we have efficiently harvested most of the resources of the planet, imperiling ourselves, most other creatures and life forms, and the future of our civilization. Something is wrong. Maybe all this stuff we have been enthusiastically helping ourselves to, is not so free after all. Our hunting and gathering instinct has gone awry. 

I see this attitude twisting people in personal weird directions too. Compulsive shoppers sit amid piles of unopened packages previously ordered, while they shop, order, hunt and gather more. Hoarders stuff their houses with, well, what anyone else can see, is trash. Sweet loving people stuff their bellies with food that is bad for them, simply because it is free, or so cheaply made or sourced, that it is almost free. Then, when they inevitably get sick from such self abuse, they swallow toxic so called medicine, simply because it is what their medical so called “plan” pays for. It is “free”: There is no co-pay. Or is there?  Soon they are freed of their body!

Contorting ourselves in ways we would not choose if we were to really think about what we actually want, we compulsively obey the rule to always go for the free stuff, or the cheapest stuff, erroneously assuming that in so doing, we are saving up some virtual bank account of abundance in the future. But what if the exact opposite is the case? 

Buy Everything 

Maybe we could reframe the acquisition of stuff. Consider everything to be a purchase: we buy it with our precious time, energy, attention, and yes, our imaginary cultural creation, money. You may think you have insufficient stores of some of these; most people do think that, but that is another whole essay for another day. You do have some, now, at hand, at least. 

So what is the best way to spend these precious resources in your power here and now? What will you purchase with this day of time, this hour of energy, this moment of attention? And who is being fooled when you hunt down and buy karma laden toxic food and gather cheap crap? Is it really free, or borrowed from the health of all of us? Is it not stolen goods purchased from thieves?

All spending is actually giving. So it comes back to you multiplied. What is the karma you purchase with your gift? Is it a better world, or a debt of damage to repair?

The shaman would tell us that nothing is free, for every action carries karmic consequences. She would say we must ask permission for every flower picked, even to take the fallen leaf; and we also must give thanks for each and every thing we take. Even photographs.

We have taken abundance and turned it into scarcity: we have hunted and gathered, exploited and mined, burned and harvested our way toward oblivion and desolation, just by following our instinctive impulse to get some more free stuff. 

Why?! And what to do instead? First, we need to expand the definition of ourselves. If we hunt and gather only personally, for me and mine, we make bad decisions. What all is rolled into each purchase and acquisition? We need to consider the long term ramifications of each harvest, extraction, each taking from the commons we all share. And “we all” includes the other animals, and the wider whole fabric of the living web on the planet we share. Are we shredding and tearing this fabric, or mending it?

Is this product we are buying the very best choice, not only for the moment, say, this meal in this moment of appetite? Or does it cost a little more but helps build soil, relationships, a healthy body and sane mind, even steady state economies?

An infinitely expanding economy of the type humans have been living with most recently, requires continuous appropriation of raw materials and resources that are not free at all. They are, in fact, being stolen from us all, the commons, and the future health of our descendants and the world they will inherit. It is based on the philosophy of the cancer cell, uncontrolled proliferation, production and growth now, and nothing else. It is unsustainable and self destructive. 

A sustainable steady state economy still allows for infinite growth, but it is a healthy growth: making ever more time to learn, play, rest, meditate, create art and music, take care of each other, make love, evolve, expand our awareness and growing in compassion. Unlimited growth potential here. 

There is a lot of freedom in this, and maybe not as much emphasis on free stuff. Maybe free stuff is just a poor substitute for freedom itself. Personal freedom will be a casualty of all of this grabbing of unguarded resources, if we don’t change the way we think of economics.

Maybe the impulse to amass and consume free stuff is just a misguided quest for love and learning. Maybe, a way to heal the scarcity thinking that goes with overemphasis on amassing more stuff, is to collect wisdom, amass gratitude, produce more love.

We have, on average, on Earth, for now, the means to stay individually free and autonomous while additionally sharing enough wealth to keep everyone healthy and comfortable. We have enough knowledge to do this sustainability while repairing the environmental damage from before. We have ways and means enough. But do we have the wisdom and the will?