Junk

During D.L. Hughley’s CNN show, guest Rabbi Shmuley said this:

“…one of the reasons that the economy tanked is that we’re so empty on the inside because of the absence of love, that we need to stuff all kinds of junk inside, thinking it’s going to satisfy us. And it doesn’t satisfy us.”

At first glance, “junk” would refer only to material goods. But the more I think about it, I wonder if other things also apply, including:

• Busy: filling our lives up with so much activity that we have no time for reflection and self-auditing, because we are afraid of what we might discover.
• Gossip: filling our lives up with the affairs of others, so that we will have no time to reflect on our own affairs, also because we are afraid of what we might discover.
• Resentment: filling our minds with negative feelings for others, or blaming others for our own problems, so that we will not have to be responsible for our own actions.
• Obligations: filling our lives with “stuff that I have to do” so that we won’t have to reassess our lives, and maybe come up with something original, which we may or may not be capable of doing. Having obligations, because we are being forced to do something that we don’t really want to do, also gives us an excuse to keep resentment (see above).
• Addictions: alcohol, drugs, sex, food, shopping, computers, videogames, and anything else that makes us numb enough not to have to be mindful about things that we should really be mindful about, for our own personal sake.

About six years ago, I stopped by a doctor friend’s office to say hi. My friend is a surgeon and a teaching professor, which means that his schedule is probably a hundred times busier than mine. He was sitting at his desk, having a cup of tea while typing up a report regarding his latest case.

He asked me how I’m doing. The first thing out of my mouth was, “Very busy. I’m very busy.” After hearing this, he stopped typing, took a sip of his tea, and leaned back on his chair. “Really?” was the only thing he said. And I saw a smile in his eyes.

I have since made my life less busy. I have since craved for less. I have since gotten less, and have been happier for it.