Tis the season to be... what? Grateful, Gluttonous, Generous, Greedy, Gregarious, Good?
The bombardment of messages, and yes I have heard my first Christmas song, "Silver Bells" ("ring a ling"), the messages tell us to -- charge and want, bigger and flatter is better, buy and eat. Buy and eat. Buy and eat. It feels like a lean holiday a comin'. Buy with WHAT? The country is on a financial diet and credit has lost its street cred, and we are all cutting back and rethinking our lives and how to change the patterns that brought us here.
I listened to an on-air conversation about reusable grocery bags and an upcoming ban on the thin, plastic ones that markets offer. I hear a lot about environmental impact on one side and job losses on another, but nowhere did I hear someone say, changing anything is HARD, messy and complicated, be it on a manufacturing level, corporate and consumer. To change is to think, and we don't like to do so.
I'm grateful and thankful that we can think. That we live in a country where we can think and not necessarily be put in prison, tortured or killed because we THINK DIFFERENTLY than others. We ALL think differently. No two minds or hearts are the same. The holidays are a time for family and friends to gather and talk and collectively think about what we can do to change. Change our spending, our eating habits our addictions to media and electronics and talk about where we can shift our attitudes and actions and make some change for our own lives and then, in doing so, the lives of others.
This Thanksgiving I am mostly grateful for my own mind's ability to change my attitude and the message. Act not distract. Give not get. Talk and listen. Talk and listen. Talk and listen.
Wish you & your loved ones a wonderful 2011!
Even though I'm a girl, and even though we have an age-difference, you are my celebrity-crush!
I love you, Jamie-Lee!
Wish you & your love ones a wonderful 2011!
On Christmas Eve, after church, my little family and I turn off the electrics. The only wired light in our house then is the string of lights on the tree. We read bits and pieces of favorite Christmas books and stories, and we talk about them, by candlelight. And then we go to bed.
We need to talk about things we should change, sure. Honestly, though, we just need to hear each other's reassuring voices sometimes. Even those everyday things are lost, a lot of the time, in the welter of dense sound.
In fact, plastic bags are fairly easily disposed of. Firstly, they can be recycled into new plastic bags several times over, and then into other plastic products. Secondly, used as fuel in a power plant, they generate the same energy and pollution as the oil they once were. Until we no longer rely on fossil fuel at all, they can replace some of the oil.
And, of course, with my idea, there would be a lot less cr@p.
Humans being creatures of habit will esily revert to gluttony and self indulgance.
Change is the greatest challenge to humans; even though nothing is permanent except change.
The change that I would like to see is that we act not distract so that at all times of the year we have compasssion, moral integrity, forgiveness, generosity, responsbility, appreciation for cultural diversity, the ability to talk less and listen more and the courage to change.
Thank you for your insightful words.
Specifically, they subtly suggest that their product will make us happy and fulfilled. The constant bombardment with these ads leads many to feel they are lacking in life and must buy, buy, buy to get to that nirvana promised in the ads.
Think about what you DO have. You will quickly realize it is a huge amount - especially compared to most humans on this earth who lack enough food and have shoddy shelter.
Talk to yourself and family and consciously enumerate what you have, starting with health, family, a roof of some kind. a land that supplies at least basic foods and a government that is good - but we need to get involved with that government more because the wealthy want what you have and are getting it.