Feeling Stuffed
My stomach, my brain, and my inbox are all pretty full. So let's keep it short.
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I should be writing a nice Sunday column, but instead, I have been distracting myself by attempting to wade through the hundreds of emails that piled up over the last few days. I opted to minimize my screen time while enjoying Thanksgiving with my family and now I’m trying to catch up.
My inbox is fuller than usual, stuffed to the brim with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, which has made the process of reading and sorting more difficult.
I find myself mindlessly deleting several Substack newsletters that I tend to follow closely from writers whose work I enjoy because I just don’t have the time to read them right now. I know how much work, energy, and passion goes in to every piece a writer publishes, so I feel bad skipping so many this weekend.
My stomach has been ever since Thanksgiving dinner and the subsequent leftovers and I think that feeling is now creeping into my brain.
Perhaps you are feeling the same way, so I’m going to keep it brief today. To give us all some time to digest and decompress, physically and mentally.
As we head into a new week and into the height of the holiday season, there’s a few little seeds kicking around in my head that I feel like it’s worth planting with all of you. Some of these seeds may take root in your mind and develop into something amazing. Some of them may not germinate at all, but I think it’s still worth putting the seed in the soil to see what happens.
Let’s all try to be a little more mindful about our shopping and gift buying this year. I like asking people what they need or want, rather than projecting my own ideals or values onto them. We all have enough stuff, so let’s just buy folks what they will actually use, or perhaps think of an experience or a kind act over stuff.
Amazon has a lot of money. Jeff Bezos literally has his own private rocket ship. I know it’s convenient to press the “buy now” button and have stuff in less than a day, but let’s try to find other places to shop than Amazon. The same items may be selling at local shops, which keep more wealth in our neighborhoods. Or maybe you can find an even cooler locally made alternative to something mass produced by a giant conglomerate?
Support your local farmers and food producers when gift giving (and also all the time).
Let’s all try to make more stuff with our hands, this season and in general. It can be cooking delicious food, making preserves like jams or hot sauces, knitting or crocheting an article of clothing, or a bit of woodworking. One of my favorite pieces of advice was from
, who once said that the best beginner woodworking project is to take a piece of maple, cut it to size with a hand saw, sand it, and oil it and you’ve got a cutting board. Do that.Fast fashion is literally killing the planet, which is bad news for any of us without our own private rocket. It’s also created horrendous working conditions overseas that involve either unsafe and underpaid workers or flat out forced labor. Let’s buy less clothes, keep the ones we have for longer, and do our part to resist buying more than we need.
Let’s all use our voices in big ways and small ways. Speaking out against injustice sometimes means calling politicians, protesting, or posting on social media about big events in the world. But it can also mean speaking up when we see something wrong happening right in front of us. Or calling out a family member or friend for saying something racist, homophobic, ableist, or otherwise offensive. Our individual words have more power than we know.
I’ll be back with a usual Wednesday Walk later in the week. Until then, recharge, refresh, and let’s all have an amazing week ahead!
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I could not agree with you more about the gift giving behaviors and shopping locally as much as possible. I've been echoing the same message to anyone who will listen about "keeping the money in our communities" and not shopping online. We have so much more power & influence then we know, and a lot of it starts with how and where we spend our money. Thank you for highlighting this major issue with general shopping behavior that so many people have become complacent with. Buy less stuff, buy higher quality things made locally that last way longer, and be mindful of how our spending habits effect other people in foreign lands. Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend!