I've been reading Don Miller's book Through Painted Deserts, in which he talks quite a bit about societal issues in North America, particularly the materialistic expectations we have for ourselves. Our standards of worth are based on acquiring wealth, beauty, happiness... the whole package. The media has convinced us (or perhaps we have convinced ourselves) that if we just buy that new tube of lipstick, that new car, that new pair of shoes, we will somehow be complete. It is a vicious cycle, and I am coming to the point in my own life where I am realizing how I fed into those lies on the commercials, in the magazines, on the billboards. All they have done is distorted our vision about what is really important... and they constantly cover up the real desire behind why we think stuff will make us complete...