Mason Jar Mania!

While reading the chapter on nostalgia in Brandwashed, something occurred to me. Although people of my generation have never experienced the “originals” of many of these nostalgic moments, we are still very much receptive to these marketing techniques. For example, Martin Lindstrom points out that the majority of consumers have never seen that picturesque scene of a young farm boy holding a crate full of produce (at least not in real life).

So how are these marketing schemes so effective on us?

It’s because we weren’t actually there. It’s because we weren’t actually living in time periods where Mom and Pop stores were common occurrences. We have never lived in Mayberry, where everyone in town knows your name and your entire life story. Because we have never actually lived through something like this, we tend to idolize this idea of how things used to be. We sugar coat everything, giving these ideas a warm, sepia tone; we focus on the warm, fuzzy feelings, and not the actual reality of these time periods. This is not to say that these time periods were awful; we just need to recognize what advertisers are doing to us.

           

Take for example the popular social media site Pinterest. Loaded with crafting ideas and recipes galore, Pinterest is any woman’s (and the occasional man’s) secret weapon to whip up the perfect life. One of the most popular things you can find on the many boards of Pinterest is anything and everything to do with Mason jars. From delicious jams and jellies to candle holders and vases, spend just a few minutes on Pinterest and you will quickly find one of these bad boys.

The thing is, Mason jars went out of style a LONG time ago. There was a huge canning phase in the 1900’s, where everyone and their dog was saving food in these handy little glass jars. But that died out around the 1950’s. So why are Mason jars coming back now? Because they stand as a symbol: an idea of a simpler time. A time where you didn’t have to buy your own canned vegetables, fruit, or jarred jellies; you could just open up your pantry and use your own!

            

But here’s the deal: canning isn't actually all that fun. A couple of years back I made jalapeño jelly with my mom. (sounds nasty, but it’s actually delicious!) We bought our little jars from Hobby Lobby and got down to business: the very long and tedious business of canning. From the washing and the peeling, to boiling the water and disinfecting the jars, there are a lot of things that go into this homemaker’s hobby. And if you don’t do everything exactly right, you could easily end up with a huge mess or even make yourself sick.

I do not hate Pinterest by any means; I think it gives a lot of good resources for all sorts of problems and needs that we have in life. But I have personally deleted my account because of this one issue: idolization. The fact is life isn’t as perfect as various bloggers would like you to believe. And we can’t simply plan out our lives on these little boards and hope that everything is just hunky-dory. Instead of planning out our lives on our own, we need to be seeking God to see what His plans are for us. I can guarantee that God doesn’t care if you have an adorable Mason jar centerpiece on your kitchen table, surrounded by your 2.5 kids and your loveable golden retriever. These things are not bad, but they should not be the only things we are striving for in life. We only have so many days on this earth to spread the love and word of God: how can we be doing that if we are too busy planning out our future lives through a computer screen? Bottom line: stop planning for the life you may or may not have in the future, start living out the life that God has given you now.