There is no such thing as free

I'm in Waterstones this afternoon feeding my book buying addiction. Yes I should be at my CSBBA - Can't Stop Buying Books Anonymous! - meeting right now, instead I'm tapping away on my laptop. I was doing pretty well if I say so myself, having perused many titles I'd whittled it down to three essential books. On my way to the checkout I manage to put two back on the shelves - yeah me. The one book I did buy was going into a bag when the checkout women asks me, 'Would you like some wrapping paper?' I look down the line where she is pointing and see this wrapping paper with giant big pink and red hearts printed on it. 'No thank you' I reply. She then gives me this huge smile and say's, 'It's free, help yourself.' I return the smile and say, 'No, it's ok I don't need it'. Which is totally true, I don't. Me and the valentine bunny are not doing a happy dance this weekend. There's no heart shaped anything flowing to or from my door if you know what I mean. The Waterstones sales assistant now has this huge confused quizzical look on her face and blurts out, 'But it's free!' I'm starting to feel a little strange because possibly I'm not conforming to some kind of social norm here? I'm thinking to myself, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS FREE.

When are we (am I) going to start consuming what we (I) need instead of what we (I) can have or what we (I) feel we (I) want? Ok, I can see the giant hypocritical elephant in the room, my book addiction, I'm working on that, honestly I am and I promise to share my books. I'm ok with giving things to people, it's called a gift, I like gifts as much as the next person, but using free stuff as a marketing or sales ploy - hum, I'm not so comfortable with that. I'm even less comfortable with the feeling that I maybe some kind of freak if I don't accept an offer simply because it's free. I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I'm not wishing to be judgemental and I know I am being, the finger is pointing at me too.

It's simply that for me there is no such thing as free, especially when it comes to consuming material goods. The earth is giving up trees, water, minerals, carbon etc; people who make and transport the wrapping paper are giving there time, experience, creativity and skills and the shop assistant is finally inviting me to take it away. At the end of the wrapping papers life it will be thrown away into a giant whole in the ground or back in the paper making loop.

DOES ANY OF THIS LOOK REMOTELY FREE TO YOU? Someone somewhere is paying - you, me, the everything that makes up our beautiful blue planet I like to lovingly call home - I'm not sure I like the price we all ultimately paying so that I can be in Waterstones this afternoon and offered wrapping paper for free.