A week from this Friday (November 25) is not only the "Busiest Shopping Day of the Year (tm)" it is also an opportunity to make a statement against consumerism, over-consumption, and greed: Buy Nothing Day.
I have three kids 7 and under. They will get a few gifts. But D. and I usually do not exchange gifts at Christmas. And I'm gonna resist all those emails from Amazon and Buy Blue this year.
The pre-Christmas season is a great time to declutter and give to those less fortunate. I use my totally politically correct paper grocery bags from the organic food market (gag) to load up the ol' minivan with stuff for the thrift store. But seriously, one grocery bag a week to the thrift mean fifty two sacks of junk outta here every year. (Salvation Army rather than a for-profit thrift, too. Read the fine print on where you are giving.) I read somewhere that a good closet cleaning technique is the one fifth rule: for every four things you keep, get rid of one. That's today's to-do list for Blue Gal.
Finally, check out Hey Jenny Slater's post, "Don't even come around here frontin' that A&F crap unless you want my Gap style to tax that ass." A very nice springboard to that whole Uber-crummie t-shirt fiasco. Abercrombie was always too pushing-it-over-the-top gay for Blue Gal, kinda like Bernard Law. But that's another post.
I belong to culturejammers, too, BG...you may be sure I won't be buying anything on that day. We do the same - the kids aren't overwhelmed with presents, and we've tried to instill a sense of understanding in them about what really matters (and stuff isn't it!). Ever since they were tiny I'd watch TV with them and make fun of the commercials trying to rip them off. Tey'd chime in on the fun of noticing that the exciting backgrounds don't come with the action figures, or that Barbie doesn't do gymnastic flips by herself. Rather than forbidding the stuff, which makes it more desirable to kids, I make fun of it.
ReplyDeleteThere's absolutely nothing wrong with using your extremely eco-friendly paper bag to shop for your extremely eco-friendly organic food of choice.
ReplyDeleteThere's absolutely everything wrong with basing your political philosophy on trends and fads.
In addition, there's absolutely everything wrong with taking yourself so seriously that you fail to see the irony behind your militant attitude.
And yes, this is a judgement call and I'm making it.
I love it when Unitarians get all bold on me...
ReplyDelete