Experiences Over Materialism in “The Technology of Simplicity” and “A Bedtime Story”
People should savor the experience at hand rather then consume material things. In Mark A. Burch’s story “The Technology of Simplicity” and Gilles Pinette’s poem “A Bedtime Story”, both of the protagonists of the passages, Mark and George Longarrow, are represented as examples of the individuals who would rather savor the experience then consume material things.
In “The Technology of Simplicity”, the writer is conscious of the materialistic world. While spending his time with his children during Christmas, the speaker notices that many adults focus on the wrong values.
Instead of “[forsaking] mindfulness for consumptiveness”, he comprehends that people should pay more attention to the “sources of the things we use/to the effects of making and harvesting them/to the consequences of having used them.” Moreover, the narrator learns that savoring the experience is more important than consuming the product. The narrator’s children open their gifts after gifts, with no time experience; “it was necessary to get on with the next thing, to stay in motion, to consume”.
The daughter thought it was important for the children to get gifts during Christmas time “but all they really wanted was for her to be with them on Christmas”.
In both passages, the protagonists both believe that it is not about what materialistic things you consume, but about the experience with the people with you. Both the narrators believe that rather then consuming artificial materials, people should immerse themselves in the moment of the experience.
