物质商品永远不能塞住精神的空洞
Material goods can never plug a spiritual hole
--Heidemarie Schwermer
What is farther and how far is far enough? Ideally, Schwermer would like to lead by example and give other people courage to change their attitudes towards money and how they live in and contribute to society. The pressure to buy and to own, she feels, has intensified in recent years. Consumerism is essentially about “an attempt to fill an empty space inside. And that emptiness, and the fear of loss, is manipulated by the media or big companies.” There is a fear, she says, that in not buying or owning an individual will fall out of society. The irony, she claims, is that material goods can never plug a spiritual hole and shopping and hoarding are more likely to isolate people than bring contentment. Does she intend to start a revolution?
什么是“远”以及“多远”算够？理想主义的Schwermer斯库维美尔愿意以身示范，给与其他人勇气，籍以改变他们对待金钱的态度和如何生存及贡献社会。她感觉到，买和拥有的压力在最近几年已经强化了。消费主义本质上是关于“一种填满内在空虚的企图。并且这种空虚及对失去的害怕，被媒体或者大的公司操纵了。她说，害怕不是存在于购买或拥有落在社会之外的个人所想。她说，具有讽刺意味的是物质商品从来不会塞住精神的空洞，并且购物和囤积更容易将人们与所获得的满足感隔离开。她想要开始一场革命吗？
“No, I think of myself as planting the seed,” she says. “Perhaps people come away from my lectures or seeing me being interviewed and decide to spend a little less. Others might start meditating. The point is that my living without money is to allow for the possibility of another kind of society. I want people to ask themselves, ‘What do I need? How do I really want to live?’ Every person needs to ask themselves who they really are and where they belong. That means getting to grips with oneself.”
“不，我认为自己像种植种子，”她说道，“可能人们听了我的演讲后远走高飞，或者看了我的访谈后决定一分不花，另外的人可能开始沉思。重要的是我的没有钱的生活会允许社会的另一种可能性。我想人们会自问：我需要什么？我真的想要怎样活着？每个人需要问一下自己：他们真实的自己是谁，他们属于哪里。意思就是认识自己。”
（英文：http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article6928744.ece，by 夜月飞花 译）
