Welcome to America: Land of Excess.

My family and I are hosting a foreign exchange student this school year, and it's opened my eyes to a lot of things. Especially excess. Why do we need SO much? Why do we have to have more of this, and more of that? What prompts us to have this more, more, more lifestyle? 

I may just be a man of simple style and 'I need what I use, not what I want' thinking, but even yesterday as my dad and granddad drove up to Valencia to watch The Bourne Legacy (great film, by the way. Don't always listen to the critics), my granddad who's diabetic and vastly overweight, stopped us at In-N-Out to get a cheeseburger and fries. Then at the theater, he downed one of those giant popcorns all on his own, and no more than 3 hours later, polished off A LOT of Italian food at Buca Di Beppo for dinner. It's crazy how much we take in as people, and I'm not even talking about food. 

Geeks collecting every piece of movie memorabilia they can get their cheeto covered fingers on (yea, I know you're out there, just don't take offense to this. It's not intentional), even Starbucker's getting their "fix" 3 or 7 times a day. There's no need to have so much. Live comfortable, yes. But don't over do it. Over doing anything is never good. 

We live in a society that doesn't say less is more. It's constantly "buy this! You'll look great." or "you need another burger. BUT, you can super size your preservative filled meal for a mere .67 cents." And when you're in the moment, you never think about what deal you're being suckered into, you just think you're getting something more for less, simply because the higher price it would be in the first places scares your pocket book to Ben Franklin's grave and back. 

Trick is this. Say no. Tell Ronald McDonald you don't need an extra fry. Take only what you need. You can't take those extra shirts and DVD's to your grave.