Want, Give and Get This spring, I received a message from the universe. Now, I don't get too many messages from the universe; sometimes I don't even receive my phone messages. But this message was very strong, and it came at four in the morning in the form of a huge thud coming from my closet. This particular message was one that my partner had tried to send me several times, but I managed to ignore it; however, messages from the universe are not so easily dismissed. These are not Post-its that can be thrown away. These are usually important messages, like "Your life is too stressful" or "It's time to find a new career." It was one of those great messages. The message was: “You have too many clothes. » The enormous weight of my clothes pulled the bracket holding the closet rod off the shelf it was attached to, and my beautiful wardrobe hit the floor. I was stunned. Hadn't I gone through that closet, pulled out a few dozen items and taken them to the local thrift store? How could this have happened? My recent wardrobe purge was the result of a class I took in seminary last semester on stewardship. Some of the early sessions focused on American consumerism and how it harms our wallets, the environment, and even our souls. We did an exercise that included visualizing our living space and trying to imagine what we would get out of it if we had 10 minutes to salvage as many things as possible before the house burned down. I had a hard time thinking about everything I was going to take, except for my photographs, some files, and my grandfather's coin collection. The idea of ​​wearing clothes hadn't even crossed my mind. I started to ask myself questions. If my clothes don't mean much to me, why do I own so many? So I tried to empty my closet of clothes, obviously I wasn't generous enough. I think it's a good question for all of us to think about. We make more money than we will ever spend as a nation, and we continue to buy more things, and yet we save far less than our parents and grandparents. We have huge credit card debts and more and more of us are going bankrupt every year..