This week we meet Big Al Stevens. For years, decades, Big Al spent enormous amounts of time and money shopping and consuming, buying no end of crapola he didn’t need and probably didn’t want. But consuming was an addiction. Al coveted a wide array of products and services large and small. It was a never-ending compulsion. A kind of enslavement.

Eventually Al became fed up with this vicious cycle. He broke his addiction, vowed to become an anti-consumer, to buy only those goods and services that were 100% essential. And for a couple years Al succeeded. He was happy. Calm. Content.

Until one day…