Letter to the Editor: It Creeps

To send a letter to the editor, simply write in. You’ll get a reply and we’ll anonymise any blogged version. Reader D writes: It creeps up on you. Despite several years of decluttering, reducing soulless consumer purchases, and making progress toward escaping The Trap, the “Beast of Consumerism” must have appeared from nowhere and compelled my purchase of some expensive fishing gear that I have never truly required, nor will likely ever use. In total, I spent more than enough money for a roundtrip flight to a far-off destination. Sigh. To make matters worse, I missed the refund cut-off. After a brief period of self-loathing over a couple of pints, I acknowledged this is part of the long-term process of deleting the Consumerism program from my biological software. Errors will inevitably occur. Now, I’m off to list the items on eBay to recover some of my funds. Perhaps I needed this wasteful episode to remind me of that which is more important, like my forthcoming birthday trip to…