My computer crapped out on me about a week ago, and I had to pick up a new one. It runs Vista, which is actually cooler than I thought it would be. But as I mentioned earlier, iTunes and Vista aren’t chummy yet. Which has been pretty frustrating.
I tried URGE this week, the music service offered through Windows Media Player. It’s a subscription service like Rhapsody and others, which had always turned me off before. But I’ve finally overcome the urge (bad pun) to have to own my music, and I’ve been happily listening to whatever I want ever since.
It got me thinking about our need to own things. For two years I was gladly paying Apple a buck a pop to “own” the rights to my music files. I could say that I was doing this because I wanted to “support the artists,” but I think we both know that would be a lie. I did it because I wanted to own the music – it was important enough to me that I dismissed the subscription services out of hand.
Why is that? I don’t have a car, and I don’t have to deal with a long commute. I listen to my music primarily when I’m working in front of my computer, which all but makes my iPod superfluous. I’m getting to enjoy any music I want for a fraction of the price, with the understanding that it’s not mine – I’m borrowing it.
Does that make it any less enjoyable?
Why do I insist on buying books versus going to the library? Why does it give me so much satisfaction to look at a bookshelf bursting at the seams? Why, when I moved from New York to Chicago, were a few dozen books I was never going to read again so difficult to part with?
Why do I get so frustrated that I don’t own property yet? There is of course the argument for building equity (although most people never do anything with their equity but trade it in for ever-larger loans), but there’s also that desire to be a “landowner.”
As our means increase, why do we so often acquire a bunch of fancy cars that sit in a garage somewhere covered in a tarp? Isn’t it just as easy to rent a fancy car for the day when you want to drive it?
Why do we buy ridiculously priced paintings that we keep in a steralized vault in our basements instead of going to the gallery downtown?
Why do we get the summer home that is a ridiculous investment and sits empty 11 months out of the year?
Would my life be worse off if I didn’t buy a bunch of music, if I didn’t have every Tom Peters book 12 feet away from me “just in case”, if I continued to pay rent or, when the time came, lived in a much smaller house than my peers?
What would happen if I adopted a spirit of sharing and borrowing versus owning? What would happen to my temperament if I used my money to get things I needed when I needed them but happily parted with said things as soon as they were (truly) no longer useful to me?
What if I had a habit of buying a book, reading it, and promptly sending it to someone else who I thought would enjoy it?
What if I bought a suit for a conference and gave it to my neighbor of similar dimension when I was done? What if I went to a nice dinner, asked the server to split my meal and wrap half of it in advance, and gave it to someone who needed it more than I did?
What would happen to my heart, my relationships? What would I discover about my needs vs. my wants? How quickly would I move from a spirit of simply borrowing to a more proactive spirit of giving?
