I enjoyed this essay by Alexandra Fleksher on the issue of materialism in the frum community. It was published Chanukah time but is relevant any time of year.
One can be a person who appreciates aesthetics but is not materialistic. This means that one can be raised in a home that appreciates the finer things in life — good music, art, architecture, design — yet the focus is on the appreciating, not on the possessing.
Vs.
…the materialistic person does not even need to value the aesthetics of the possessions he acquires; he most values the social image obtained from those possessions.
I think about this topic a lot.
