In our world today one can buy virtually anything and everything, as long as their pockets run deep enough. Auctions provide platforms for such events to occur and each item brought forth has a unique worth and value for each bidder. The saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” comes to mind. But what happens when we begin treating every day life like an auction, and simply try to purchase our happiness one day at a time.
Salman Rushdie wrote a compilation of short stories entitled East West, one story being the Auction of the Ruby Slippers. In this tale the ruby slippers are those worn by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. They are believed to hold magical powers, most notably being the ability to travel back to “home.” Each bidder has a different reason for wanting such an item and their definitions for “home” are equally unique, our narrator’s being the desire to go back to his true love Gale, who broke his heart.
“We revere the slippers because we believe they can make us invulnerable to witches (and there are so many sorcerers pursuing us nowadays); because of their powers of reverse metamorphosis, their affirmation of a lost state of normalcy in which we have almost ceased to believe and to which the slippers promise us we can return; and because they shine like the footwear of the gods.”
This auction in not just for the fantastically rich however, it has been widely publicized and is open to all. “All are equal before the justice of the gavels: the pavement artist and Michelangelo, the slave girl and the Queen. This is the courtroom of demand.” Obviously, there are those more capable of actually being able to afford such an item, but that does not detour others from offering their life savings for just a shot to own the ruby slippers. And as Rushdie mentions, in this showroom if one were to wait long enough all of the treasures of the world would come before you. The Taj Mahal, the Alps, even human souls are up for the biding. The auction is to me an over embellished truth of our society today. While you might not be able buy a person’s soul, for the right price you could get a person to do whatever you want. In this country we tend to place a person’s value on the items they own and on the value of such items. The more you have the more worth you have.
Annie Leonard is a sustainability expert who has focused her life towards reducing the amount of resources we consume and waste. She rightfully depicts our society here in America as being stuck in a repetitive and programmed rut. We are told that if we don’t have a particular item we are not cool, beautiful, sophisticated, etc. And once we buy such products they become obsolete or used up in shorter and shorter intervals so that we must go out and purchase new items. In many ways this is just like the story of the ruby slippers. We believe that owning that one item will solve all our problems and finally make us feel content. But then another item comes around, and another, until it’s no longer about the item but about owning the latest and greatest. The amount of resources it takes to constantly create new products and the waste that is associated with such products is staggering, and if our habits don’t change soon there won’t be anything left.
-Truth
2 comments on The Auction of Life
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do you ever sometimes feel like a tiny cartoon figure with a whole page full of everything under the sun drawn above you? It is so hard to see how one person's actions can change a system that has taken over a hundred years to form. We and our parents and grandparents were taught that the only true happiness was to own the "ruby slippers".
I know that we will never go barefoot again, but maybe we could all be happy with some sandals or nice loafers, and leave some shoeleather for others....;)