Experience Consumers

Next week I will be turning thirty-two years old. And though I told my parents to just put money in my bank account, they insisted on sending me presents. So yesterday I picked up a box from my local post office and ripped it open immediately after getting home (my parents told me to open the box when I got it). What I found inside was precious.

Most presents in that box where less than fifteen dollars. But to me they were precious treasures. Because each one of those items had vivid memories attached to them. There was a coffee cup from the gas station where I stopped to get fuel on those long deputation trips. A daily desk calendar with my favourite comic strip. A penguin Christmas ornament that reminds me of all the penguins I bought my mother the last Christmas I was at home. Every item that I pulled out of the box meant something special to me.

The experience reminded me of Christmas and birthdays when I was younger. Like most children I wanted the latest video game, computer, or electronic gadget as a present. Christmas was especially exciting for me. I would shake the presents with my name on them and try to guess what was inside. Christmas morning would be filled with happiness as I ripped open the brightly wrapped packages. But I always felt sad after all the presents were opened. I can remember one Christmas being surrounded by presents and at the same time unhappy. Part of this is because the excitement of opening presents was over. But I believe there was something deeper to it.

For years people have been consumers of things like electronics and clothes. But today they have become consumers of experiences. This is because the feeling of love and care that I received from the gifts in that birthday box are much more powerful than any item. Millionaires spend their lives seeking for what I found in that box. But these experiences of love are hard to come by.

Post modernity promised us happiness and success like never before. But it has not lived up to that promise. “We have pagers, answering machines, e-mail, phones, cellular phones, and modems. We're more connected than ever before, and we're more lonely than ever before.1” We have an entire generation of people surrounded by things but at the same time unhappy.

How do we help cure this problem? Through simple acts of kindness. One of the most meaningful presents in my box was a bag of Starburst jelly beans. That bag of candy probably cost less than $2.50, but it was a prized treasure to me. Obviously the jelly beans are not a prized possession (though I like jelly beans). It is the memory that is attached to that bag which is so precious.

My parents know that I love jelly beans. They could have gone out and bought any kind and I would be thrilled. But they asked me what my favourite jelly beans where. Now to some people that would not be a big deal. But seeing that bag made me feel incredibly loved. My parents where not only willing to just send me jelly beans. They went to the trouble of finding my favourite kind and sending them.

What's the point? A $2.50 bag of jelly beans can give the experience which can't be bought with millions of dollars. Because that candy along with the other items in my box where given in love. The gifts in that box challenged me to show love towards others. Never before has there been a greater need for simple acts of kindness. People all around us crave love and acceptance which can't be found in money or things. Perhaps it is time for us to connect with those people, and start sending them boxes of treasures.

1Leonard Sweet, Soul Tsunami, pg.193, par.3, ln.4