Peter Menzel

It is foggy here, in my mind: a glasses, homemade socks, and book wearing kind of day. I'm taking Mac to the dentist, and I will tuck several books into my purse; the book queue lengthens daily, like a line at the grocery store before a clipper.

My "outfit" of choice for home consists of cocoa striped socks and Peter Menzel's "Material World," a book which is too big for reception area perusing. I first learned about it while visiting Jill's Notebook about a month ago.

Through stunning photography and words, Menzel tells a thousand stories. He is a relayer of cultural details, an enlightener. To create this book, Menzel traveled the world, taking pictures of families from numerous countries, in front of their house or shelter, surrounded by all of their possessions. Menzel's pictures repeatedly stamp an impression of the various societal conditions, affluence, and values that exist across the Earth, from walls repaired with dung in Ethiopia to a rancher in Texas, brimming with duplicate items and knick knacks. What can I say as I look around my own house, cluttered with books and electronics and plastic toys and shiny appliances. That I am lucky? It sounds so trite. That my future goals involve the purchase of a Calphalon non-stick pan, while other people are praying for an education? I hang my head.

The first step is acknowledgement.

Mac is enamored with this book. Every night, we talk about a region and the family that lives there. Last night, he and his dad discussed a German family. After Mac went to bed, I read about Mongolia.

I was surprised that only one family from the United States was depicted. The American family in the book is middle class, a representative, I suppose, of the "norm." I would've respected attention given to poorer American people, too--a homeless family, a single parent family--that is an American reality, too. The wealthier would have had a place, also--McMansions and luxury cars, walk-in closets stuffed with clothes, like bolts of material wedged alongside of each other at a fabric shop.

As for me, there is the gift of having free time to explore this book, a house to complain about and remodel. Lamenting a slow internet connection or the fact that the town rarely puts on a decent art show.

Pheeehh. These are not the things that matter.

Some people don't worry about "balance" in their lives because they have more pressing concerns: enough work, enough food, sickness, access to medicine, access to education. Basics. Not anything close to Maslow's vision of self actualization because everyday is a struggle to solidify the bottom levels of the pyramid: the safety, the shelter and the food. But there are similarities between global families, too: a love and a concern for our children, a desire for good health, freedom at some level (however one might choose to define it).

This book has made me reexamine the things that I take for granted, not that my arm chair reflection helps anyone who is in a less fortunate situation. I have redefined my heroes as the people who take time out of their lives to volunteer, here or abroad.

This book is a good one. I'm glad that my library carried it, although a paperback version is available through Amazon. I'm also looking forward to reading another of Menzel's books, "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats," soon.