Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

If you’re looking for a few minutes of on-line laughs laced together with a whole lot of serious content, log onto www.postconsumers.com and play the on-line game show that will test your knowledge of consumerism. Be forewarned: This is not your grandmother’s simplicity movement. This feature is meant to delight and disarm with thoughtful questions, presented by a virtual “game-show host” who is appealing and attractive, if not altogether real. I’m not going to give away the questions or the answers, but I’m going to brag on my own score — I scored a perfect 10! (I guess if I didn’t, I’d have no business billing myself as a sustainability advocate.)

When you log onto postconsumers.com, The Get Satisfied Game Show will come right up on the home page. Click on it and prepare to have some fun! The game, like the organization presenting it, was created by the remarkable trio of Carol Holst, Randy Gold and Michael Beck, who have been working for years to try to dismember (or dismantle) the vicious grip of consumerism on our American culture. I’ve never run into a more single-minded, pure-hearted or smarter bunch of people. Anywhere. Everything produced by this outfit is first-rate, well thought-out and serious without getting heavy-handed.

The creators of Postconsumers.com have been trying to get their arms around this beast called consumerism for many years. They’re always all about education, but now they’re going the comic route. And why not? When you step back and think about it, America’s addiction to consumption is a comical thing. We work ourselves to the bone to buy more stuff, only to throw it away, and then replace it. We stress out trying to pay the bills when there’s clearly a better way. We need to step back from it all, take a deep breath and pause to just be.

Take the quiz, learn the facts and utilize the resources so you can challenge consumerism in your realm. And if you’d like to contribute your own ideas about our culture of consumption — how you’ve learned to consume thoughtfully — or mindfully — check out the homepage feature, “What does being a postconsumer mean to you?”

If you’re turned on, as I have been, by the core message here and are looking for additional resources, be sure to pick up a copy (or get your library to order one!) of “Get Satisfied: How 20 People Like You Found the Satisfaction of Enough” (Easton Studio Press: 2007). Postconsumers.com has also produced a fabulous new work book to go along with this movement. And they’re also offering a life-changing interactive “how-to” web course, produced in cooperation with the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Give them a look, then spread the word. This group is that good, really good enough!