Our planet is very small and with unchecked population growth the space we all have to live in is shrinking. The resources that we can use to feed and cloth ourselves are becoming harder to obtain. Around this small blue planet the gap in wealth inequality is growing.
Being a hamster on the commercial wheel of what year end giving has become both wastes a lot of energy and takes us all to nowhere of value. We shouldn’t go on like this. We can’t go on as if there are no consequences to unchecked consumerism.
This year let us:
• Buy mindfully.
• Give mindfully.
• Buy local.
• Buy small.
• Give for need.
• Give for love.
• Don’t give for obligation.
• Don’t give in exasperation.
• Don’t give jokingly or without concern or contemplation.
• Consider the gift as a whole. o Where did it come from?
o Was it made with virtual slave labor.
o Does purchasing fund oppressive regimes?
o Does its packaging burden the waste stream?
o Is it stuff that works?
o When it is used up can it be recycled? o Will it really add to the health or welfare of the recipient. o Is the gift a response to a need in any sense of the word?
o Does it fill any void in the recipient’s life?
• Buy thoughtfully.
The currently claimed reason for celebrating the coming solstice is a poor shepherd from the middle east. He was a humble man. He exhorted his followers to travel light. He warned us against rampant consumerism when he said to us all “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” Does this sound like a person who would want you to stand in line all night to be one of the first ten in the store on Friday?
Live with reason and not excess this season.
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