If there's one way in which the world has changed more than any other since 1840, one thing that's truly different in our lives, it's that we've become such devout consumers. That consumption carries with it certain blessings (our lives are long and easy by any historical standard) and certain costs (first and foremost the damage it causes to the rest of creation). But the greatest cost may be the way it's changed us, the way it has managed to confuse us about what we really want from the world. We weren't built just for the life we find ourselves leading- we were built for silence and solitude, built for connection with each other and the natural world, built for so much more than we now settle for. Christmas is the moment to sense that, the moment to reach for the real joys. ~Bill McKibben :: Hundred Dollar Holiday
