Consuming Thoughts P

P is for Patterns and Being Present. Roger Daltrey: Listening to you, I get the music, gazing at you, I get the heat, following you, I climb the mountain, I get excitement at your feet. In our excitement to buy, adorn and enhance our selves through commerce it would serve us well to be aware of two things. 1) Our selves: What patterns of consumption drive us to buy and what exactly are we buying? Those of us who do the shopping probably have some well-worn trails we traipse. As I say to my son: pay attention, you might just learn something. 2) Our context: What environmental patterns (designed and emergent) drive us to buy what? Michael Pollan’s intriguing treatise, The Botany of Desire on the control plants exert on our development as people and cultures is well worth a read. As is Biomimicry, a beautiful book by Janine Benyus.

Ms. Benyus also gives us this to ponder: life creates the conditions conducive to life. Spend some time with that one, folks. As a consumer, parent, business person, educator, human being are you creating conditions conducive to life? How do you know?

Tags: Biomimicry, Botany of Desire, Janine Benyus, Michael Pollan, Roger Daltrey