I notice every weekend I see the parking lots full at all the local plaza’s, shopping centers and restaurants. We are all suffering from the economic crisis, but have we taken a minute to separate necessary things from luxury things?

This is going to be one of the lessons of the crisis, learn to give up the unnecessary things, and take only what is necessary for our survival.
We live in a totally interconnected, global world now. We depend on each other for survival. If we take, we take it from someone else, or we deplete nature. With our present selfish, greedy behavior we slide into deeper and deeper problems all around.
We have to understand, that in such a closed integral system we can only survive if we unite, and work together making the well being of the whole our priority.
It does not mean we have to live on bread and water, our world can provide us with comfortable living circumstances, provided it is used and distributed the right way.
This is the purpose of this crisis, to make us understand the system we live in, and how we need to adjust our attitudes and relationships to each other.