The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

While ‘Something’s Missing’ by John Mayer continues to be my official off consumption song, it’s the words from ‘Shopping’ by Duncan Sheik that are swirling around in my mind, ever since Chhavi left a link to the lyrics in a comment –

So you wrote me a letter which I thought was really kind
I don’t recall which song it was but there was one you really liked
And you asked me, so innocently, of my inspiration
Why I write the songs I sing, the reasons why I make them

Well, nothing here is what it seems
I’ll risk the wreckage of your dreams
It’s so that you are always shopping
To steal away the cash you’re dropping
Listen to me when I say
Your fantasies are built to fade
So there you are, you’re always shopping
Don’t even try, there is no stopping

Don’t misunderstand me, it always makes me smile
When I can serenade you as you’re rollin’ down the aisles
On this journey of your souls desire, the paradise of goods
You’re doing just exactly what I think you should

Sean Penn’s ‘Into the Wild’ is a brilliant movie adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s bestselling book about the real-life (mis)adventures of Christopher McCandless.

I had been dying to watch ‘Into the Wild’ ever since I read about it in the April 2008 issue of David Report. So, I was delighted when GK brought over the DVD for our Saturday Night Movie Marathon session. It is such sweet serendipity that reaffirms my faith that the universe reaches out to give you whatever you ask for.

The movie itself is mind-blowing, especially in the context of my own experiment, and I went through an entire spectrum of emotions over its two and a half hour run.

Emile Hirsch is superb as Christopher, the idealistic, but troubled, twenty-something protagonist who, inspired by Tolstoy and Thoreau, decides to abandon his career and his family, give away his $24000 savings to charity and hitchhike to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

Christopher deals in extremes and evokes extreme reactions. It’s easier, therefore, to idolize him as enlightened or reject him as naive than to identify with him.

I have spent the morning listening to ‘Something’s Missing’ from John Mayer’s truly delectable album ‘Heavier Things’.

I always find it amazing when a song resonates so well with whatever state of mind I’m in. Replace ‘guitar’ with ‘laptop’ in the second last paragraph, and this song could have been written for me.

I’m not alone, I wish I was
‘Cause then I’d know I was down because
I couldn’t find a friend around
To love me like they do right now
They do right now

I’m dizzy from the shopping mall
I searched for joy but I bought it all
It doesn’t help the hunger pains
And a thirst I’d have to drown first to ever satiate

Something’s missing
And I don’t know how to fix it
Something’s missing
And I don’t know what it is
No I don’t know what it is
At all

When Autumn comes, it doesn’t ask
It just walks in where it left you last
You never know when it starts
Until there’s fog inside the glass around your summer heart

Something’s missing
And I don’t know how to fix it
Something’s missing
And I don’t know what it is, no I don’t know what it is
At all