Thought #2 on materialism; John came home and headed for the kitchen to put away the dishes he’d previously washed and I said, “Whatever you do, don’t ask Amy if she wants her grilled cheese sandwich on rye bread.” and as she laughed from the other room I added, “Boy, that was a mistake!”
“I can’t even imagine.” he replied. And Amy and I could almost hear the brain surge splash though his head.
I said, “You’ll never guess the connections, but they have something to do with big fat grey giraffe tongues!”
Amy called in, “It has to do with Portland.”
I didn’t think that would help and added,”Oh no, don’t say that. It’ll only confuse him with thoughts of nude bicycle riders.” (Portland is famous for them)
Amy and I never did tell him the story behind the rye bread and he never asked; Sometimes it’s nice not to know and let our minds graze on the possibilities.
Haven’t you ever read a book that started with wonderful possibilities. Then it developed into the mundane and finished with a big fat splat? When I see that splat coming I leave at the “possibilities” section.
I’ve noticed that the people that come to my house to play with me and visit John enjoy connections also  for instance the giraffe tongues / rye bread. In my books about Leafman ideas hop one to another creating the story. Character development isn’t said; it’s shown, as when we’re told,”Grandmother’s Neda’s house was full of plants but twice full of problems, one hundred two to be exact, and one hundred three was knocking on her red front door.”
You’re hopefully asking’, “What problems?” As the story answers this it shows Grandmother’s mind making some of those connections I like, ” Her poor bugbear mind thought, what if 102 boxes had babies? what would happen then? And if the babies had babies, I’d run out of air! They’d find me standing up dead because there’d be no place to fall down.”
I could never find the books I wanted to read so I wrote my own. They’re also for children, but now I’ve discovered a treasure! Martha Grimes writes Richard Jury mysteries and they’re wonderful!
How dose this connect to materialism? May I suggest that you let your mind surge, splash,slosh and graze.  nancymauerman.com