So I took my mom and my Nana out shopping the other day in the pouring rain so, of course, Nana brought along her umbrella. This umbrella is not the cool, colorful kind that teenage girls and young women make sure they have: it has black squares on an absurdly odd color brown. Not exactly a fashion statement. Well, I realized after dropping her off at home that she left it in my car. My brother looks at me and says, "Is it ugly?" I respond, "Kinda...." Jared's answer? Then it's Nana's." While what he said was true (the umbrella is quite ugly), his comment got me thinking. The primary use of an umbrella is to keep us from getting wet when it rains, not to advertise them like runway models. Nana was thinking in practical terms; I was not. While we certainly want to look good, does it really make a difference if my purple umbrella does the same job as her brown one? Of course not. Her umbrella probably cost $5; mine cost $15. Different price, same job...figure that out.
It's true... We don't need half of the things we have. We are such consumers... We should really get back to the basics.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me think about when I went to Wal*Mart with someone and he wanted to buy and umbrella. They were in the "Purse accessories" location and I made a joke about how he had to be careful and not buy a girl's umbrella. I think now what would it matter if he bought the plain black one or ended up with one that had polka dots on it. Even if he had to face a few well-placed jabs it would still have kept him dry. I know I lose sight of practicality all the time. Thank you Aleka's Nana.
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