Cities confuse me. When confronted with so many different ways of being, dressing, interacting and living, I begin to lose track of what sits comfortably with me. I find myself walking the streets wishing I had the confidence to wear that skirt or that colour, wishing I owned boots as smart as those, wishing…wishing…wishing I was something that I am not. I begin to feel lacklustre, plain and discontented. I begin to get my values in a twist. I find myself drawn out of myself, scattered and longing to be many different people.
As a Quaker I have a commitment to simplicity. I am constantly evaluating whether I truly need to buy this or own that. I am no saint, and I often decide I don’t need something, then find myself walking out the shop having caved under the weight of capitalist consumerism once more…
Britain Yearly Meeting’s faith and practice includes the following paragraph:
“The testimony of outward simplicity began as a protest against the extravagance and snobbery which marked English society in the 1600s. In whatever forms this protest is maintained today, it must still be seen as a testimony against involvement with things which tend to dilute our energies and scatter our thoughts, reducing us to lives of triviality and mediocrity”
Quaker faith and practice 20:27
So as I move around the city, listening to the expectations of this culture telling me how to dress, how to behave, how to live in a cosmopolitan environment, I am asked to re-evaluate how I protest against the “extravagance and snobbery” of modern consumer fashions. I am prompted to question how much my outward expression truly affects my sense of self, and wonder whether a disengagement from the surrounding culture might, in fact, enable me to engage with life, and with my faith, on a deeper, more fulfilling level.
