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August 22, 2019My third child was set to arrive in a few short weeks. A third daughter. It was time to finalize preparations for her arrival: clean the house, set up the bassinet and clear out a dresser drawer for her clothes.
We didn’t need many new things. We already owned a car seat, crib, bassinet and other baby accoutrement. Some of the clothing had stains that appeared after they were put up; the bouncer worked but was a slightly broken. The swaddle blankets were in great shape – but they weren’t nearly as pretty as the large floral prints that appeared on the scene in the years since my first child was born.
In other words, much of it I wouldn’t own if I were following Marie Kondo’s method to owning less. It did not “spark joy.” Unstained clothes, a fully working bouncer and floral swaddle blankets sparked excitement, if not outright joy; but I didn’t own those things. What I already owned, however, was extremely useful, and what I already had. So, I did my best to de-stain the clothes, repair the bouncer and enjoy the swaddles.
These efforts to make-do are common sense. But, in a culture that celebrates shopping and asks our possessions to “spark joy,” they also are a small rejection of the consumeristic ethos that promises happiness at the next purchase.
The minimalist attitude of Marie Kondo and others addresses the effects of over-consumption: having too much stuff. But, in the end, it has the same root cause: a disordered relationship with material things. Our cultural relationship to things is one that asks our possessions to give us joy and fails to acknowledge the importance of practicing stewardship for what is given to us.
A key aspect of stewardship is to give away things we don’t need, to be sure. In the Gospel of Luke, John the Baptist says, “Anyone who has two coats should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” But, taking our things to give to someone who needs them is an entirely different motivation than ensuring that our house is only filled with things that “spark joy.”
In our age of over-consumption, we face an additional problem: it’s increasingly difficult to find someone who doesn’t have a coat or a shirt. Thrift stores only sell one in four pieces of donated clothing. North America sends 10.5 million tons of material to be disposed of every year. Many African countries are even rejecting our used clothing.
Perhaps the modern-day John the Baptist would say, “Anyone who has a coat should repair it and use it as long as possible; he should give the money saved to help those in need.”