The world isn’t going to hell in a handbasket, it’s going to hell in a shopping basket.

Ho!Ho!Ho! Merry Christmas!

I had the pleasure of reading The Problem With Christmas : Are you brave enough to say no to a high-stress holiday? today. Bill McKibben has a way with words and he didn’t fail me in his addressing the issue of Consumer Based Christmas. In his article, he highlights all of the personal problems I have with the holiday and offers up some insight into the possible ways to reduce the stress and achieve a more peaceful celebration. And, SURPRISE, none of them involve the terrible S word: shopping.

First off, I was thrilled to find out that my feelings surrounding this time of the year aren’t unnatural. It was a welcome relief to see that there are others out there who struggle each and every year like I do.

If you poll Americans this time of year, far more of them regard the approaching holidays with dread than anticipation. It has long since become too busy, too expensive, too centered around acquiring that which we do not need.

And his suggestions for alternate gifts were also among the very things I found myself thinking about giving in place of the usual ties, socks, picture frames, and candle holders.

A gift of time — a coupon for a back rub, or a trip to the museum, or a dinner prepared someday in the future — is a gift whose exchange rate is figured in a stronger currency (if you’re an economics major, think euros vs. dollars). Or gifts can come embedded with time already spent: a jar of homemade jam, a stack of firewood in the back yard.

Then he speaks to my heart deeply when he speaks the truth of exactly where the environmental part of this problem comes into play.

[…] our environmental problem, at root, isn’t that the stuff we’re buying uses too much energy or too much plastic, or that its paint has lead in it, or that it’s been shipped too far. Our environmental problem is that we consume way too much because we’ve agreed to try and meet basic human needs — status, respect, affection — with material ends. And no time more so than at Christmas, when Santa rides in on a Norelco razor. It’s a kind of joint conspiracy that few of us dare break out of, even though we all understand at some level that it’s not working.

For several years now I’ve tried to come up with a way to approach my family about this issue. For several years I’ve felt so discouraged and depressed whenever Christmas comes around because I know what it means: money spent on gifts not needed on a day not celebrated for what it really is. I’ve struggled to understand why my family members insist on spending more, doing more, planning more, buying more every single year. It has gotten so bad that I was thrilled to death when they finally decided to draw names, limiting the number of gifts purchased each year, at least.

Alternate giving has been a tactic for me for the past two years or so. For instance, one year I bought my family members a month’s membership to a fitness center. What happened? They never used it. Another time I bought some a 30 minute massage. Yet again, they never cashed it in. For Mother’s Day I donated some money to a charity in my mother and sister’s name and gave them the card explaining the details. How did they take it? Well, let’s just say there was no excitement in the air that day.

With Christmas upon us yet again, I have more reasons to finally approach my family and request that they not buy us gifts this year. Not only do we find it ridiculous to have everyone go out and spend money on a gift for us just for the sake of buying a gift, it would mean that it is one more thing we’ll have to get rid of this year. So what is the point if it’s something that will just end up on eBay or in a bag going to Goodwill? We won’t be able to take a bunch of stuff on the bus with us, only the necessities. And let’s face it, Christmas gifts are usually anything but the necessities.

While gifts to loved ones don’t have to be a necessity, you can still manage to give them something of importance that doesn’t require finding a space for or a sneaky way to regift without the original giver finding out. My alternatives, unfortunately, haven’t been the best options for my family members, but who is to say they won’t be for someone else. I, for one, would love a free month at a gym or a 30 minute full body massage. But hey, that’s me. I think the trick is finding out what works for you and your loved ones. Coming to the answer will require thinking outside the box (or shopping cart), though. Is that something you are ready to do?

Do you think “philosopher” when you hear the name George Carlin?

Chances are, you don’t. Chances are, you think of a stage in a comedy club with the raspy voiced comic spouting off some vulgar obscenities and popping some blood vessels in his neck. At least that is the initial visual that pops into my head. But then I stumbled across something that totally changed my perception of Mr. Carlin.

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, & pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon & back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less & less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men & small character, steep profits & shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, & pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window & nothing in the stockroom.

source

I took the liberty to put emphasis on a certain phrase for a reason. The reason is that this is part of “THE REASON” why our family has decided to give up the conventional lifestyle that seems to be the norm for Americans and replace it with one of nonconvention.

The American culture is not one to be proud of in the least. We are a throw away nation, disposing of items ranging anywhere from paper plates to children. We are a society that is riding on the wave of mass consumption, strongly convinced that buying more things will bring us more happiness. We are bombarded with advertisements every minute of every day, reminding us that we haven’t spent every single dime we have yet. Banks and credit card companies strive to keep us indebted to them for the rest of our natural life, yet we don’t have a single thing to show for it.

We throw our children into public school systems that only care about making a grade and wonder why we have kids graduating from school that can’t read. We feed our families junk food and then wonder why there is an increase in obesity. There are prescription drugs on the market for everything imaginable, yet natural remedies are met with upturned noses and thought to be quackery.

We are a rude and selfish lot. There is no compassion for our fellow man. There is no compassion for the Earth. We have no patience. We have no tact. To make it all worse, it seems we have no desire to change.

There is such a disconnection within our society. It is our hope to find a connection with this journey. We want to connect with the Earth. We want to connect with people. We want to connect with the plants, the trees, the sky, the dirt. We want to connect with anyone who is willing to step up and make a connection with us. We want to be better people, better human beings, better stewards of the Earth, and better neighbors.

Isn’t that what we should all want?