mine is the generation that bought more shoes and we will get what we deserve

I own 36 pairs of shoes. Now, while this amount would be miniscule for some people (Imelda Marcos, Carrie Bradshaw, etc) I fear this may be a lot for a woman who lives in a 1,300 square-foot house. My shoes, which I've never really given much thought to before, became a matter of interest for me last Saturday when I discovered, to my amazement, that I did not own a pair of dark brown dress shoes with a small heel, something that I "desperately" needed on that particular day, and as a consequence I found myself rushing to the store to buy my 36th pair of shoes. As I was buying said shoes, I was reminded of an article, When More Equals Less, which appeared in The Detroit News last week. Surprise, surprise, materialism is addictive, leads to unhappiness and may even cause health problems such as headaches and anxiety issues. Understandably, each generation hopes to be more successful than the generation who came before them, and I am reminded of this every time I enter my own home. I live in a house that is over fifty years old but has only had three sets of owners. The couple who built this house (Bea and Merrill according to the giant box of old greeting cards in my attic) apparently lived here from after WWII until some time in the 1990's when they sold it to a newlywed couple. That couple lived here for about five years until they sold it to us so they could move into a bigger house, which is exactly what we plan to do within the next five years. It's intriguing to me that my little house with one tiny bathroom was sufficient for Bea and Merrill to raise their children and grow old in, yet at some point in the course of the last sixty years this house has changed from being an end result to being good for nothing but being a young couple's starter home. I have never considered myself to be a particularly materialistic person - I drive a sensible car and handle keeping my credit card debt to a minimum - yet I can't pretend to be above the Hummer drivers I so love to hate (thanks Viewmaster) because, after all, there are those 36 pairs of shoes lurking my closet. I can't help but think that my generation's student loans, credit card debt, behemoth SUV's, oversized homes and lack of a retirement plan can only spell disaster somewhere down the road. Oh well, at least we'll be wearing cute shoes.