Grocery shopping causes high stress levels to me, so much so, that I avoid it whenever I can.
So most of the times, if I don't feel well at all, I send husband to do the groceries alone.
To not be a total social recluse, and starting to lose my abilities to cope, I go and try if I can still endure this procedure without being a crying basketcase once in a while.
Today, I felt like taking it on, so we shared the shopping list and I wanted to get done with my part fast.
As a highly visual person, I ran into a common problem again.
I just (after about 4 years) got used to the "new" design of the rice package which is to be seen on the right in the picture, so I could go to the shelf, grab and run to the cash register.
Then, again, they change the design so totally, that I do not recognize it as the rice we needed and always bought there.
Is this known to anybody else, or is this the total autistic ubersensitive OCD thing to want everything stay the same?
I mean, come on! Why do products *have to* get a new jacket almost as often as the fashions change? Is it not enough that they blast out commercials to customers about useless products in every corner of the aisle, torture them with cryingly loud advert signs everywhere, and scent the stores with *purchase encouraging* scents?
This all just causes information overload and shutdown in me. It makes me literally wanting to throw up and fall down dizzy.
This is an environment, I can not happily live in.
It can just barely be called survival, if you ask me.
The longing for a little, self sufficient farm, where I can have a room at, do some work with the crop and live a happy, back to basics life gets stronger and stronger.
My only question would be, is there electricity and a way to connect to the internet? because the contacts there do feel more like home than the real life contacts with so many society zombies.
I also would need a way to pursue my crafts (knitting, painting, spinning, maybe weaving and such fibery ways to keep me sane and warm).
There is no real need to use the most recent fashionable clothing, nor is there any need for cosmetics except lotion and shampoo or soap.
Where are those, who think similarly?
Do you want to feed commerce or yourself?
I wish for you to contact me and find a way, how we can establish such an enclave of sanity in the mad world around us.
If you feel as repelled from what is going on out there as I do, maybe, if we gang up, we can make a difference.
3 comments:
I have to think there are MANY women like us these days!! Simple life, simple values. Our Ravelry friends are much more like us than the average person out there,I think. Most everyone I know of, family, acquaintances, and co-workers seem to think I'M odd! They race madly forward- somewhere-anywhere- without any real mindfulness. Mindfulness, that COULD change the world! Maggie in Milwaukee
I didn't know you had a blog! Your post made me laugh; I feel the same way about shopping. Just ask Branden; I get a certain look in my eye and it's dangerous to get between me and the door. =)
Packaging changes are especially annoying here in Germany, since I have such a hard time reading the labels to begin with. When they change, I'm completely lost. The grocery store that I go to moves the lactose-frei quark every few weeks, it seems. It takes forever to find it again!
We must be very similar; I too would be quite happy on a self-sufficient farm someplace (there was even a month or so where I almost quit grad school to go do just that). You'd love Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. =)
~Erica
What Maggie said. I embrace your sentiments also, Nana! We may not be self-sufficient yet, but we bought a little farm away from the city (close enough to still be within reach of good doctors though). We are slowly working towards being off grid for electricity needs - solar is very expensive here, and we need to repair the roof first! But I garden for our table and have taken classes in preserving food and root cellaring.
I wish our community would pull together and allow a barter system for certain goods and services. It's been tried in other communities with good effect.
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