A recent study shows that the average American household owns 2.3 cars. We just bought our 4th. I'm just about having a fit owning 4 cars for 4 people. It seems outrageous. And yet, of course, I have my perfectly reasonable justifications. With two kids off in college in two opposite directions from our home, we have sent them both off with a vehicle so that we don't have to take several hours to pick them up and drop them off at both ends of vacation times. One college vehicle is a cheap used car we bought for just this purpose. The other is our oldest vehicle that has now been moved into the "cheapo" category. We also wanted a more fuel efficient car to make these long trips to visit kids. But still...4 vehicles for 4 people? It seems excessive.
Most of us have become quite adept at justifying purchases like ours. And I don't want to dismiss all those justifications. The reasoning seems pretty good. That's what makes them justifications and not simply self-deceptions. Still, when simply owning one vehicle pushes me into the category of the top 10% in wealth among the world's people, I pause. I pause. Why me? Why do I get to have such luxuries in my life? I'm certainly not more deserving. I try to hold lightly to these things - to my justifications, to my guilt, to the possessions themselves. Hold on lightly...no grasping.
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