Materialism

“Mr. Mick, I did some math over the holiday!” said Miriam, a delightful Year 9 student.

“That's great, Miriam, I'm so proud of you!”

“Yeah,” she laughed, “I went SHOPPING!”

I was upset. “Going shopping” is NOT my idea of “doing math.”

“Look!” I yelled at them. “You guys have got it all wrong. You think that buying lots of stuff can make you happy. Actually, you've got it backwards. Buying lots of stuff makes you UNhappy.”

“What???” they looked at me incredulously.

“I'm serious. When you buy lots of stuff, you have to worry about your stuff. You might lose it. It might break. Everybody wants it. Somebody might steal it.”

“That's why you need even more stuff!” they exclaimed, “so when somebody steals your stuff, you still have lots of stuff!”

“No,” I proclaimed. I borrowed some wisdom from the Buddha, “acquiring more stuff is like drinking seawater when you're thirsty—it only makes you thirstier!” I was pleased with myself, thinking I had proved my point. “I can't think of a single thing in this world that I want to buy,” I added proudly.

“Come on!” they were in disbelief. “How about a new computer?”

“No way!” I said, “I've already got TWO computers!”

“A new phone?”

“No, I HATE phones!”

“New clothes? New basketball shoes?”

“Nope. Nope.”

“How about some new math books, Mr. Mick? You want some new math books, don't you?”

Uh-oh. I was trapped in a lie.

“I take back what I said” I confessed. “Math books make me happy.”