After twenty-six days in Obsolescence Management 2008, I feel unimpressed with my challenge. The struggle has been minimal and the change less drastic than some would imagine. Yet. Although nothing new has been under the influence of my otherwise naturally greedy hands, I still sense a disconnect with money and my (lack of) understanding of it. The paper volume of (in)visible greenbacks from my hands, either electronic or anatomic, to the tills of coffee places, eateries and automatic bill deduction services, is outrageous. I find little authority in the arguments around economic recessions and patriotic duty to buy! buy! buy!. If I am about to receive a large amount of cash from the government for no apparent reason than to stimulate a corrupt system of take and take, I would rather not, thank you very much. And who or what are we stimulating with such tax cuts? The coffers of prodigious businessmen? Some have called them "Wal-Mart Gift Certificates" or have used the fascinating, and oddly applicable, term of "Clitoral Economics" . Under the influence of my simple understanding of how our country's economic wheels turn, I imagine financial decisions like these are meant to be uppers for the lowers of our society, ones already on benders from the poor treatment that probably helped get them where they are today . This, undoubtedly, is just a stratagem employed by powerful hands desperate to keep their gold-plated lifestyle. Sounds similar to the politics of the woman's pleasure. Is it really ever about the woman? Or just a flashy style of vernacular geared towards the needs of man? Perhaps, the clitoral economics is all shame, too. We speak with big words of how deeply invested we are in the neediest lives of our brothers and sisters, yet we act unaware most of the time when faced with the reality of their poverty. Here's to looking out for Number One, huh, political demigods? Radix malorum est cupiditas
As for me, I am looking out for a way out - a break from unintentional, mindless existences. I am charting and coursing what it would take for me to see the cable cars to the divine with in and out of my mortal body. I figure by taping into this transportation my transformation, although piecemeal and belabored, will have sustainability as its core protein. At my current station, I am attending to the delicacies of market flow within one of our larger (and contrived) ecosystems - the supermarket. Although I am generally turned off by warfare metaphors, I feel liberated in saying that the boxed and processed isles of SuperMarket USA are like another cold war (re: corn war). There are many small battles that are desperate for some personal diplomacy in the land of the shopping cart. The largest benefactor in this effort? Time, really. To take a helping of intention and attend to the unspoken handcuffs between our hands and our food requires time. Unfortunately, the peak of traffic in your local Hy-Vee is roughly half way through rush hour time, as people propel there hurried bodies to the ready-made section to find something edible to done tonight's dinner table. Edible doesn't (always) mean credible, however. It would be nice to put things in my body that were closer in recognition and appearance to Panicum virgatum than Formula 409 All Purpose Cleaner. This process of mindful shopping is challenging, for I was not brought up in society to look at anything besides price and fat content. So I am imperfect with the cold handle of cart beneath my hands but I am attempting to feel and recognize that cold metal as the vessel of modern day imperialism in my (and many other's) lives. So taking price and fat content, what else must I take an owl's eye towards? Here's a few
1. Social Responsibility. It was a dark day when I realized Athenos Hummus was owned and operated by Phillip Morris. And how come only the Post cereals are ever on sale? Why does it seem that the lowest ticket prices are affiliated with some of the most scandalous companies? After I discovered the Better World Handbook back in 2004, I knew I had involuntarily and irreversibly signed myself up for a new level of conscious thought. By purchasing Nabisco crackers, I was saying to the world " I don't care, Altria, if you are involved with some of the most egregious acts of greenwashing and public deception. Give me your Triscuits!!". Who would have thought that Minute Maid had many human rights allegations against them or that Hormel supports inhumane factory farming? It doesn't say these things on the boxes, just the fat content and some gargantuan picture of a cereal flake looking ever so delectable. The hard part? I will not see an immediate reaction after not buying a Kraft product. My $3.89, now going to another company that pays its workers a living wage, doesn't seem to even nick the paint on the trailer's bumper of that monstrous company car of Corporate America (insert CEO of any major food supplier on our shelves). Maybe my pocketbook is even injured because of this revelation. That is why responsible shopping takes time and planning. I would rather buy nothing than buy something that forced a 12 year old into a sweatshop.
2. Corn content. Recent time has been the parental figure of this discovery. Jumping on the Omnivore's Dilemma bus, I am repeatedly amazed at the amount of things I leave unnoticed everyday. I was shocked by how corn is the dictator of our kitchen. Michael Pollan calls us "corn chips with legs". He is disturbingly correct. We are an artificially sweetened culture (aside: even in the way we show love and appreciation for each other). My Fiber One bars, those large bowel aphrodisiacs, are a log of high fructose corn syrup. Many processed food products are infused and filled with corn-based fillers. This end result is the driving force behind some unfortunate farming practices that have left the farmer's plate practically devoid of anything but animal feed, a hard swallow for a family with complex body needs. Because we are a soda-saturated society, we need a cash crop that will feed such an addiction. Because we are a meat-eating people, we need a cash crop that will fatten our calves faster than we can slaughter them. Because we are fossil-fuel fanatics, we need misleading alternative energy sources that are heavily based in corn (and thus still enslaved to those nonrenewable resources). Our bodies are screaming at us, admonishing us to listen to them and their inherent wisdom. We suffocate that pledge by plunging down our food hole another product caked in a corn-derived sugar source. Oh, how deeply we are afflicted against our need for intimate connection to our bodies.
3. Location, location, location. I never thought about the distance my food travels to get to me, shiny and ready for immediate consumption until recently. Of course there is the gold standard in this effort: the 100-mile diet. Here is another quadrant that requires our clock's freedom. Look next time at the place of production of your boxed food. Or that banana. I admit my struggle. I want that orange that traveled hundreds of miles (or when I wasn't a vegetarian, I wanted that delicious sea creature that I knew wasn't coming from Lake Calhoun). What am I supposed to do when farmer's markets are out of style for the winter in my midwestern home? It is very easy to belittle our efforts and quit altogether due to extreme fatigue and consumerism depression. I know there exists, betwixt mindless and maxed out, an appropriate middle-ground where we press on with our efforts but have mercy on each other. This in one area I need it the most. Here is a website, a pretty good one too, that reminds us when fruits and veggies are in season and thus are best for buying. It may be a small penance but it is, in the very least, putting attention to a necessary detail.
But a few. Others to the list include: eating a more vegetarian/vegan friendly diet, buying organic when possible (and sensible, i.e. organic from Chile?), and using this for a budget friendly way to approach our shopping waves.
It all comes back to mindful living. What are you putting in your body? Who are you surrounding that body with? And what is that body doing to be connected to the reality of each other?
26 January 2008
15 January 2008
the importance differential
Obsolescence management, according to my continued evolution of the concept, is not about following arbitrarily self-designed and regulated constructs, as in the strictest of deontological ideals, but rather, and if you are familiar with my teleological inclinations this is of no shock value, an in-depth analysis of the trends of the trade that are my natural "consume and dispose" tendencies. This concerted effort to buy nothing new for the year, which may or may not prove to be such an arduous experiment, is a thesis statement for a paradigm shift in the ways I view money and economics, creation and destruction, politics and the polis it controls and, ultimately, the imperialism we suffer through and exert on others. Said in another way, it is the practice of devoting intention to my actions, the words that fuel those actions and the thoughts that give way to the words that open or close my ability to connect with others in meaningful ways. It is knowing what I am doing and doing what I know to be the right decision for my and other's reality.
I have been fielding many interesting "What if?" questions regarding this goal and a lot of them are the unexposed seams to this outfit, scenarios that are thrown (or would be thrown) at me as to identify "weak areas" where the original plan may crumble under my own lack of foresight. The truth to the answer I have been giving is that this commitment isn't my attempt to resurrect old pharisaism. Although I respect Kantian theory (to the extent I understand it), I am not acting out on rigid duty (however I am sure at some point, nay many points, in the year I will have to simply to get me past some of the otherwise hard-to-resist consumerism opportunities). I believe in some irrational things and tout many inverted philosophies but I would rather not feign impassioned resistance. The year isn't about choosing misery and it is not being forced upon me from a ruthless regime. If by abstaining in the purchase of some new item brings about for me an extensive sympathetic response and utter melancholy (and thus prohibits me from making meaningful connections with other), I will step outside the rules of this game and do it. Only, though, if it can be done with clarity in intention and philosophical backing. I am not so ignorant to believe that I am and will be free from the pressures of my market driven world.
Since the money I use to sustain my lifestyle isn't really my money (student loan-based income) and I receive that check without exchange of some service on my part (only the promise to repay with interest), it can't really be called money, in my opinion. It is a false sense of control over the luxuries I have deemed necessary for a "comfortable" and sensible way of existence. We all have that choice, an importance differential, but we do not all have the ability for it to be funded. This is where obsolescence management enters in. We must know what can and cannot be supported in our importance differential. Big deal, you say, a budget. Yet budgets are almost passé these days, thanks to the ease of credit. A budget, not to forget, can do little to address the oppression our monies may cause for others. I may set aside $50 for groceries each week, and that would help me get out of debt and start living free from the red (if that is even the truth is still disputed); yet, if I am filling my cupboards with Altria-based products (like Kraft) and never once think about the dirty connections that company has to life-destroying actions, how can I say that my budget is a sound and satisfying financial decision. I cannot and should not because to the least of these I have showed my grace, or lack thereof, and I, ultimately, want to find many ways to keep my hands clean of fraud, deception and death.
I took an informal poll of some of my peers on what draws their disposable pocketbooks (if they had one, of course) to open up and be released. The overwhelming majority? Travel. There is a permeating response of my generation to explore with our own eyes, to move past a two-dimensional Rand McNally World Map into a realm of personally perceived sensations. Reading about the people of Namibia is not enough when our passports can breakdown physical distance. Travel is in my top five, as well, and I wonder why I want to travel and how this creates life in myself and others or, a fear of mine, how this may actually destroy life instead. I asked people what they would want to spend their money on (all basic needs aside) because I realized not everyone would think my $7-yoga classes were worth the economical investment if I were trying to live closer to reality of simplicity and the poor ways of my fellow-oppressed brothers and sisters. I found myself in an internal defense meeting, justifying this choice to an unseen jury and I came quick to the merciful idea that each one of us goes through that importance differential differently. This experiment is also about increasing the access to mercy for others, buffering the karma of second chances to all of us. I may choose to spend money on yoga or travel as opposed to Louis Vuitton bags. Someone else may select the latter. If I want to encourage an environment that brings people together in meaningful and lasting ways, then I must be able to at least try to understand someone else's priority ranking. That does not mean I am priming myself to carry a $300 handbag. It just means I have another window to look through in an attempt to end prejudice. I need that. We all need that.
I have been fielding many interesting "What if?" questions regarding this goal and a lot of them are the unexposed seams to this outfit, scenarios that are thrown (or would be thrown) at me as to identify "weak areas" where the original plan may crumble under my own lack of foresight. The truth to the answer I have been giving is that this commitment isn't my attempt to resurrect old pharisaism. Although I respect Kantian theory (to the extent I understand it), I am not acting out on rigid duty (however I am sure at some point, nay many points, in the year I will have to simply to get me past some of the otherwise hard-to-resist consumerism opportunities). I believe in some irrational things and tout many inverted philosophies but I would rather not feign impassioned resistance. The year isn't about choosing misery and it is not being forced upon me from a ruthless regime. If by abstaining in the purchase of some new item brings about for me an extensive sympathetic response and utter melancholy (and thus prohibits me from making meaningful connections with other), I will step outside the rules of this game and do it. Only, though, if it can be done with clarity in intention and philosophical backing. I am not so ignorant to believe that I am and will be free from the pressures of my market driven world.
Since the money I use to sustain my lifestyle isn't really my money (student loan-based income) and I receive that check without exchange of some service on my part (only the promise to repay with interest), it can't really be called money, in my opinion. It is a false sense of control over the luxuries I have deemed necessary for a "comfortable" and sensible way of existence. We all have that choice, an importance differential, but we do not all have the ability for it to be funded. This is where obsolescence management enters in. We must know what can and cannot be supported in our importance differential. Big deal, you say, a budget. Yet budgets are almost passé these days, thanks to the ease of credit. A budget, not to forget, can do little to address the oppression our monies may cause for others. I may set aside $50 for groceries each week, and that would help me get out of debt and start living free from the red (if that is even the truth is still disputed); yet, if I am filling my cupboards with Altria-based products (like Kraft) and never once think about the dirty connections that company has to life-destroying actions, how can I say that my budget is a sound and satisfying financial decision. I cannot and should not because to the least of these I have showed my grace, or lack thereof, and I, ultimately, want to find many ways to keep my hands clean of fraud, deception and death.
I took an informal poll of some of my peers on what draws their disposable pocketbooks (if they had one, of course) to open up and be released. The overwhelming majority? Travel. There is a permeating response of my generation to explore with our own eyes, to move past a two-dimensional Rand McNally World Map into a realm of personally perceived sensations. Reading about the people of Namibia is not enough when our passports can breakdown physical distance. Travel is in my top five, as well, and I wonder why I want to travel and how this creates life in myself and others or, a fear of mine, how this may actually destroy life instead. I asked people what they would want to spend their money on (all basic needs aside) because I realized not everyone would think my $7-yoga classes were worth the economical investment if I were trying to live closer to reality of simplicity and the poor ways of my fellow-oppressed brothers and sisters. I found myself in an internal defense meeting, justifying this choice to an unseen jury and I came quick to the merciful idea that each one of us goes through that importance differential differently. This experiment is also about increasing the access to mercy for others, buffering the karma of second chances to all of us. I may choose to spend money on yoga or travel as opposed to Louis Vuitton bags. Someone else may select the latter. If I want to encourage an environment that brings people together in meaningful and lasting ways, then I must be able to at least try to understand someone else's priority ranking. That does not mean I am priming myself to carry a $300 handbag. It just means I have another window to look through in an attempt to end prejudice. I need that. We all need that.
06 January 2008
ready to pop...
Sometimes I am tempted to make a comparison between the consumer-centered lives we live with that of David Vetter. I do this with great sensitivity, undoubtedly, because, after all, he had a tragic, incapacitating rare genetic condition called severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) that purchased for him a sterile existence in a bubble. The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, remember? For the majority of us, we are wrapped in plastic in this extensive derivation, in a sense. There is the easy parallel to a "plasticized" world - credit cards, impenetrable #6 plastics, and single serving size snacks. These are all for our convenience [except those highly dangerous packaging techniques that are used for products like batteries and Dora the Explorer dolls] and a sensation of ease. Along with the ease and the convenience, we are surrounded in a bubble of obtuseness, conscious or subconsciously. Yet this isn't always a self-imposed disregard for the reality of things, sometimes it is a habit so deeply ingrained and entrained of the acceptable and expectable procedural steps of human living that we feel neither right nor wrong at our current method of owning. Hence, a bubble.
For starters, we are far removed from the production of the things that pepper our living room buffet. Rarely do we know who stitched our pants, harvested our potatoes, bottled our soda, or installed our cable television. We are given no biographical sketch of the life of the item we are about to make our own, forgetting all together that it is even a dynamic example of living and dying, regardless if it considered an inanimate object or not. Even the most synthetic and unnatural of products have been handled with human hands, connected to real bodies that are less unlike our own than we give them credit. Although it feels like election time is all the time and we are just puppet's in some politicians imagination, we are casting ballots with fiber-like regularity. Ever dollar we spend is a check in some box, supporting an unseen crowd of profiteers and bulls in neckties. I must ease a bit at my jeering for I honestly do not believe we are a people of evil intentions and disrupted agendas. I do, though, think we are wounded wills wiggling and writhing against corruptible systems that have nothing in their periphery that resembles are "best interest". So we (collective usage) look for peace of mind in expressions of power so as to take that periphery and narrow it, in the very least, to our targeted "needs". Yet, by some strange design, the world is incomprehensible in thought which makes it easier to forget that our Gap sweaters are the long days of some other individuals in a land that hot-topic media will never advertise.
Another interesting discord is the relative ease of which we are able to acquire products. If I see something that I have a primordial drive to buy, I do and it is done. Rarely am I looking to purchase something that would require a bank statement approval, so I consult nothing but the internal compass of my daily "need". Sometimes there is little deliberation. Other incidents merit full-blown rational conversations with the Platonic form of Consumer Me. You can see there are ulterior motives involved here. I recently witnessed this in my early obsolescence managing days. At my school, an organization was set to sell reusable coffee thermoses. Immediately I commented to a friend that I would like to be the new owner of one of those shiny mugs - I mean, I fully support the travel mug as a top player in the waste management of coffee shops. Only five seconds had past in my mentation before I envisioned my hands around the metal, smiles glued on my lips and a happier an environment because of it. As quick as the imagery came in, it left in my remembrance of a little project I am undertaking here. But I was not ignorant to what transpired. Even though the reasons why I wanted to buy this particular thermos were pure and edifying to a greater cause like mother earth [that, and my philanthropists twin was eager to make an appearance], I was still battling against the truth of that matter : I did not need this coffee cup. I have one already. So in and out went that purchasing urge, yet it left in it's place something I don't really like to admit. I really am that spoiled, youngest child "gets anything she wants because she's a girl" girl. My brothers were right.
If we are in a bubble, oblivious to the pre-purchasing days of our material gains, then I figure we are in a bubble with our post-purchasing days of waste and obsolescence. In the same song and dance, we rarely think about where our garbage goes. I cannot remember the last time I visited my local landfill but I am sure no one has done that for a first date. In Kansas City I learned that roughly 80% of what finds a home in the permanent landfills is actually recyclable, an abhorring response to inconvenience, I surmise. There is this expectation that if we put our shit in a receptacle, someone else we take it away. We can't be bothered with the afterthought of our indulgences. So just like that we have little connection to the consequence of over packaging and needless consumption. If I don't want it anymore, I rid myself of it.
This reminds me of a little story called The Story of Stuff. If you have twenty minutes, I would suggest an investment in this epiphany. Even if you sense political undertones that may not piece well with that which you are comfortable with, I challenge you to at least think critically of the larger picture. It may release some built-up tension in that bubble we comfortably keep about us, just in case.
I sense there is a connection between the disposable nature we are trained to live and the way we make, keep and terminate relationships in our lives. More on this to come.
In the meantime, it feels so tiring to be in charge of consuming but never approached to be part of the creation. I think my creating crafts are craving for camera-time this year.
For starters, we are far removed from the production of the things that pepper our living room buffet. Rarely do we know who stitched our pants, harvested our potatoes, bottled our soda, or installed our cable television. We are given no biographical sketch of the life of the item we are about to make our own, forgetting all together that it is even a dynamic example of living and dying, regardless if it considered an inanimate object or not. Even the most synthetic and unnatural of products have been handled with human hands, connected to real bodies that are less unlike our own than we give them credit. Although it feels like election time is all the time and we are just puppet's in some politicians imagination, we are casting ballots with fiber-like regularity. Ever dollar we spend is a check in some box, supporting an unseen crowd of profiteers and bulls in neckties. I must ease a bit at my jeering for I honestly do not believe we are a people of evil intentions and disrupted agendas. I do, though, think we are wounded wills wiggling and writhing against corruptible systems that have nothing in their periphery that resembles are "best interest". So we (collective usage) look for peace of mind in expressions of power so as to take that periphery and narrow it, in the very least, to our targeted "needs". Yet, by some strange design, the world is incomprehensible in thought which makes it easier to forget that our Gap sweaters are the long days of some other individuals in a land that hot-topic media will never advertise.
Another interesting discord is the relative ease of which we are able to acquire products. If I see something that I have a primordial drive to buy, I do and it is done. Rarely am I looking to purchase something that would require a bank statement approval, so I consult nothing but the internal compass of my daily "need". Sometimes there is little deliberation. Other incidents merit full-blown rational conversations with the Platonic form of Consumer Me. You can see there are ulterior motives involved here. I recently witnessed this in my early obsolescence managing days. At my school, an organization was set to sell reusable coffee thermoses. Immediately I commented to a friend that I would like to be the new owner of one of those shiny mugs - I mean, I fully support the travel mug as a top player in the waste management of coffee shops. Only five seconds had past in my mentation before I envisioned my hands around the metal, smiles glued on my lips and a happier an environment because of it. As quick as the imagery came in, it left in my remembrance of a little project I am undertaking here. But I was not ignorant to what transpired. Even though the reasons why I wanted to buy this particular thermos were pure and edifying to a greater cause like mother earth [that, and my philanthropists twin was eager to make an appearance], I was still battling against the truth of that matter : I did not need this coffee cup. I have one already. So in and out went that purchasing urge, yet it left in it's place something I don't really like to admit. I really am that spoiled, youngest child "gets anything she wants because she's a girl" girl. My brothers were right.
If we are in a bubble, oblivious to the pre-purchasing days of our material gains, then I figure we are in a bubble with our post-purchasing days of waste and obsolescence. In the same song and dance, we rarely think about where our garbage goes. I cannot remember the last time I visited my local landfill but I am sure no one has done that for a first date. In Kansas City I learned that roughly 80% of what finds a home in the permanent landfills is actually recyclable, an abhorring response to inconvenience, I surmise. There is this expectation that if we put our shit in a receptacle, someone else we take it away. We can't be bothered with the afterthought of our indulgences. So just like that we have little connection to the consequence of over packaging and needless consumption. If I don't want it anymore, I rid myself of it.
This reminds me of a little story called The Story of Stuff. If you have twenty minutes, I would suggest an investment in this epiphany. Even if you sense political undertones that may not piece well with that which you are comfortable with, I challenge you to at least think critically of the larger picture. It may release some built-up tension in that bubble we comfortably keep about us, just in case.
I sense there is a connection between the disposable nature we are trained to live and the way we make, keep and terminate relationships in our lives. More on this to come.
In the meantime, it feels so tiring to be in charge of consuming but never approached to be part of the creation. I think my creating crafts are craving for camera-time this year.
02 January 2008
if not new, then what?
There certainly are mystifying forces around our natural inclination to plan to procure. Maybe it is better addressed as a lack of planning that sets off in us an unconscionable consuming. For clarification purposes, I do not see consumption in and of itself as a crooked criminal. Although I pay my homage to the world's great ascetics, I think I am too enamored with my enamoring of the mystics to actually be one at this point in my life. That said, I subsist on products purchased in stores, just like the majority of autonomous beings. I make impenetrable forts with books and hope one day an IKEA will be of a distance know for its mileage brevity, so to assist in the perennial goal of "organization" in my life. I like the idea of antique stores and vintage clothing, but have not ever been able to make such causality. And who doesn't like to fantasize in Sharper Image, as electronic birds fly overhead your limp body being massaged by that $1200 vibrating barcalounger?
So here we go - the new year is now in day two and I am still in the nascent stage of recollecting the days of 2007 while I dream of those yet to be born for 2008. These moments are ripe with optimism, as everyone breathes a sigh of second chances...or third...or 589th. I personally like to scour my backlog of emails, messages and letters and read how ridiculously worried I was about some insignificant detail that naturally resolved itself 8.45 seconds after it began. Not as enjoyable is the annual review of monies and where they all went. The US dollar of Sharlene funneled mainly into the usual categories of 1) communication [phone + interent] 2) daily bread and shelter [Eden Alley + Korma Sutra + anything ethnic, anything vegetable + trail mix + meatless meats], 3) Project Move Body [yoga + yoga + yoga + pages of anticipated yet never accomplished triathlons, half-marathons, and marathons], and 4) Project Save Me From Medical School [Netflix + half.com books + occlusal guard + iTunes + live music + coffee shop's goods] and, the ultimate shudder, 5) murder money in the form of petrol. Oh yeah and there was that trip to India, California, Maryland, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Minnesota [x3] plus the pre-owned iPod, post-examination recovery efforts [like earrings] and the million of other things I thought I needed and was duped to buy. So it leaves my wallet faster than it is coming in because the reality is it ISN'T coming in. My mouth is feed by the hands of those who also hold M203s. I am supported exclusively on financial aid and have no real sense of connection to that money. Yet in ten years those historical funds will be the hand that prevents me from feeding myself and others. What I buy today will control my tomorrow. So I am looking to uprise in a revolution against myself this year.
So, if not new, then what?
The great truth of 2008 is I can reduce and avoid that tyranny all together. That is step one. Don't buy when you don't need, which demands an overhaul on the definition of "need". I believe a disconcerting breakdown of communication falls between the lines and the words we try to use to express a personal understanding yet they are ineffective, imperfect vehicles of that understanding. We don't know the proper vernacular of our insides so we are left exchanging poor grammatical statements that leaves both us and everyone else utterly confused. "Want" is translated as "need", as "starving" is synonymous for "boy, I could go for a cheeseburger right now" and the last time I checked more people were in love with The Hills than they were with their own neighbors. You know? Real people. Tweaking our understanding of what is necessary for each one of us to pass the hours of the day in such ways that both liberates us and others from greed, despair and poverty, is a good start.
I went into Target New Year's Eve, sort of like a "green mile" moment. With driven intent I marched stately into the women's apparel and began searching for something, anything that I wanted and felt justified in purchasing. It was, after all, Fat Tuesday before Obsolescence Management '08 began. To my chagrin, I couldn't get anything. At first I felt that old, familiar rustling in my consciousness - "that would be nice to have...look at those shoes that woman is wearing...ooh, sale!". I saw it there in me, lazily using it's weakest temptations because instead of acting on those impulses, I began looking at the tags of on the clothing. Not one thing in my review of racks was produced in the US. Of course, I had to laugh at the "Make Peace, Not War" trendy tees that were made in Guatemala. So with little prodding, I exited and pursed my lips, somewhat in a disappointed fashion, for I was not binging before the great purge and I feared I would resent this in the future.
After the reduce option, we are presented with buying used. I have been an avid fan of this avenue for quite some time, as undergrad textbooks [and, even more so, medical school tomes] have outrageous price tags when their are shiny and new. So sites like Half and Ebay are positive options. Let's not forget Craigslist, Freecycle and other community-based exchange environments. There is also something to be said about knocking on your neighbor's door and asking to borrow an item you need that they already have. Relationship building and consumption downsizing all in one - an excellent opportunity to the mountain of plastic bags waiting to wait thousands of years to disintegrate.
The road to Obsolescence Management has been walked on by many a feet and the feats accomplished have been great. For me, this forum isn't about revolution a priori but rather revolution a posteriori. I am joining another peaceful form of resistance.
So here we go - the new year is now in day two and I am still in the nascent stage of recollecting the days of 2007 while I dream of those yet to be born for 2008. These moments are ripe with optimism, as everyone breathes a sigh of second chances...or third...or 589th. I personally like to scour my backlog of emails, messages and letters and read how ridiculously worried I was about some insignificant detail that naturally resolved itself 8.45 seconds after it began. Not as enjoyable is the annual review of monies and where they all went. The US dollar of Sharlene funneled mainly into the usual categories of 1) communication [phone + interent] 2) daily bread and shelter [Eden Alley + Korma Sutra + anything ethnic, anything vegetable + trail mix + meatless meats], 3) Project Move Body [yoga + yoga + yoga + pages of anticipated yet never accomplished triathlons, half-marathons, and marathons], and 4) Project Save Me From Medical School [Netflix + half.com books + occlusal guard + iTunes + live music + coffee shop's goods] and, the ultimate shudder, 5) murder money in the form of petrol. Oh yeah and there was that trip to India, California, Maryland, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Minnesota [x3] plus the pre-owned iPod, post-examination recovery efforts [like earrings] and the million of other things I thought I needed and was duped to buy. So it leaves my wallet faster than it is coming in because the reality is it ISN'T coming in. My mouth is feed by the hands of those who also hold M203s. I am supported exclusively on financial aid and have no real sense of connection to that money. Yet in ten years those historical funds will be the hand that prevents me from feeding myself and others. What I buy today will control my tomorrow. So I am looking to uprise in a revolution against myself this year.
So, if not new, then what?
The great truth of 2008 is I can reduce and avoid that tyranny all together. That is step one. Don't buy when you don't need, which demands an overhaul on the definition of "need". I believe a disconcerting breakdown of communication falls between the lines and the words we try to use to express a personal understanding yet they are ineffective, imperfect vehicles of that understanding. We don't know the proper vernacular of our insides so we are left exchanging poor grammatical statements that leaves both us and everyone else utterly confused. "Want" is translated as "need", as "starving" is synonymous for "boy, I could go for a cheeseburger right now" and the last time I checked more people were in love with The Hills than they were with their own neighbors. You know? Real people. Tweaking our understanding of what is necessary for each one of us to pass the hours of the day in such ways that both liberates us and others from greed, despair and poverty, is a good start.
I went into Target New Year's Eve, sort of like a "green mile" moment. With driven intent I marched stately into the women's apparel and began searching for something, anything that I wanted and felt justified in purchasing. It was, after all, Fat Tuesday before Obsolescence Management '08 began. To my chagrin, I couldn't get anything. At first I felt that old, familiar rustling in my consciousness - "that would be nice to have...look at those shoes that woman is wearing...ooh, sale!". I saw it there in me, lazily using it's weakest temptations because instead of acting on those impulses, I began looking at the tags of on the clothing. Not one thing in my review of racks was produced in the US. Of course, I had to laugh at the "Make Peace, Not War" trendy tees that were made in Guatemala. So with little prodding, I exited and pursed my lips, somewhat in a disappointed fashion, for I was not binging before the great purge and I feared I would resent this in the future.
After the reduce option, we are presented with buying used. I have been an avid fan of this avenue for quite some time, as undergrad textbooks [and, even more so, medical school tomes] have outrageous price tags when their are shiny and new. So sites like Half and Ebay are positive options. Let's not forget Craigslist, Freecycle and other community-based exchange environments. There is also something to be said about knocking on your neighbor's door and asking to borrow an item you need that they already have. Relationship building and consumption downsizing all in one - an excellent opportunity to the mountain of plastic bags waiting to wait thousands of years to disintegrate.
The road to Obsolescence Management has been walked on by many a feet and the feats accomplished have been great. For me, this forum isn't about revolution a priori but rather revolution a posteriori. I am joining another peaceful form of resistance.
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