It's time again to revisit

the term "stock market correction." I am finally hearing more

and more references to a reduction of consumer spending being the cause.

The powers that be are finally talking about you and me. Not the CE-whatevers

or the board members, but you and me.

Seems like

we are now getting the blame or the credit, depending on how you look

at it, for the decline of stock market activity. And rightly so. We know

it's not war or fear of terrorism that has caused Americans to stop spending

so much.

We peons have

discovered, in recent years, that the guy next door never had a thing

on us. Consequently, enough Americans have stopped keeping up with Joneses

to the point that we are actually making a difference in stock market

activity.

Not only have

we begun to realize it is not possessions that bring peace and happiness,

we also are fed up with having to buy more and more and better and better

because what we have been sold will not last. We are fed up with things

are not made to endure, so some of us have begun to make do. And it feels

good!

We figure sooner

or later, manufacturers will get the message. For instance, I am extraordinarily

irritated with the clothing industry and Hollywood. Nobody on the California

coast or in New York City is going to dictate to me, either directly or

indirectly, what to wear or how to fix my hair or face.

If you buy

your size today, your real true size, many of the designs hug you quite

uncomfortably. I don't like naked and I don't like skin tight. Never have.

Never will.

And you know

what, I don't know any men or women or boys and girls for that matter

who don't appreciate a little mystery. I like clothes that hang comfortably,

flow a little, and compliment what I have and don't have. Is that too

much to ask?

Also, I want

a variety of colors every year. Just in case I decide one year ­

not one month, or one week, but one year ­ to go out and refresh

my wardrobe I want to see a variety of colors, not just "the one"

that's in that year. Now you know why my wardrobe consists primarily of

black, white and red. If it's not classic and if I don't know that I can

wear it ten years from now, I don't buy.

That is what

I expect at a minimum. I'm still wearing casual and dress clothes that

I bought more than a decade ago. If I wear something out or outgrow it

(yeah, that still happens occasionally) then I may throw it out or pass

it on.

My car is a

1993. The truck my husband sold when he bought his "new" truck

was ten years old. That's how it ought to be. We should be able to expect

that products we buy will last and not have to be updated every year or

two.

I'm not even

going to delve deeply into the computer industry. It's Monday morning

and to do so would ruin my week. Suffice it to say, that's one industry

that better get the message quick or we Americans will continue to simplify

our lives even more.

You see, that's

what's happened. It hasn't even been a subtle happening. We want simplicity.

We want it yesterday. We want to have time to know ourselves, our family,

our friends, our next door neighbor again.

It still blows

me away that nobody can figure out what has happened with the stock market.

We are fed up with being sold goods that don't last and we are realizing

once more that more is not necessarily better.

We also may

have become fed up with the countless options. Those options are too confusing.

Considering just some of them is very time-consuming. So we have worked

at two and three jobs in order to have the money to make the choices that

are ours because of all the options American industry/technology affords

us.

We have said

"Enough!" Reckon Wall Street will ever get the real message(s)?

As I said a

year or two ago, we are covered up with things, but families are falling

I often recall

the lack of things that I perceived to be poverty as a child. How wrong

I was. Clearly, it is all that we do to add so many things that brings

poverty to far too many lives. Indeed, this continuing stock market correction

is a good thing. May the correction behind the correction make its way

into the hearts and homes of every American.

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