Biodegradable What?!

I’m going out of town this weekend and couldn’t be happier! It will mean a long drive and risking traffic-related stress, but it will all be worthwhile when I’m sitting next to a crackling campfire in the woods with my family.

Today I came across this story about biodegradable home products like couches. On the 2nd page they get into some fascinating talk about “thing theory” and the idea that people define themselves and their “sameness” by the stuff that they are around. “I am me because I sit at the same dining room table every day.” And they say that the fact that biodegradable furniture is catching on suggests an identity crisis. Earlier in the article they say that it is evidence that we’re living in a hyperconsumeristic society. I see it more as evidence of the second view. We buy too much, hence we want something we won’t feel bad throwing out in a year. But, at the same time I think people who buy this stuff might be taking a longer term view. “I know in 50 years this will be junk, so I want to help Mother Nature decompose it when it eventually is in a landfill.” That’s what I was thinking upon beginning to read this article anyway.