Sunday, August 15, 2010

Retail Therapy

We all know about retail therapy. The phrase 'retail therapy' is linked most often to women but men do it too. I remember one guy friend in college that showed up at work one day with a new pair of Dr. Martens (the fairly pricey, chosen footwear of the 90's college student in Michigan). After I commented on them he explained that he'd been feeling a little blue and decided he needed a new pair of shoes. You rarely hear about men doing this but I think they do it as often as women, they just don't talk about it. It's not a man/woman thing, it's a human thing.
The other day my horoscope told me it would be "worth it to spend a few bucks on something fun simply for the value of the break it creates in daily monotony." I always look at my daily horoscope hoping for some insight into what the day will hold and now it's telling me to shop wantonly. To shop and buy something unnecessary because it will brighten my day.
What about maybe taking a walk or reading a book or eating something new or, seriously, anything that doesn't require buying something I don't need? Our culture is so purchase centered. 'Things' really do shape and dictate our days. I find that some days I spend so much time organizing my life - moving things from point a to point b, fixing things, purging things or acquiring new (used) things. Thinking about how much time we spend on things really can be crazy-making. We all do it so unconsciously but all of this moving around of stuff takes up huge amounts of time. Time we could be doing something else, say, more meaningful.
None of this, however, changes the fact that I have my eye on a new little black top that I've been trying to justify purchasing for about a month now. Will the urge for retail therapy hit me hard and drive me into the store to purchase this top I don't need or will I choose to walk my dog instead?

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