Idea #7: It Is Better to Give And Receive

You could get this card from here I think.

It is so easy for me to forget my affluence.  Especially this week after switching to cash.  Counting out exact change at the till made me feel poor.  I can't really explain it, but I wanted to say something like, "I could charge this whole store if I wanted! I just don't want to...." Why does cash at a grocery store feel like food stamps to me?  Weird, right?

Anyway, part of the Occupy Me gig is an effort to remember and live in my affluence as way of undermining the Big Booming Voice that says "STILL NOT ENOUGH...!!"  Tonight, as young kids knock on my door and demand free candy and I keep having more to give away, I'm enjoying the feeling of having more than enough and I think there's a lesson there.  Again.

It's is a lesson I've learned so many times, but apparently don't retain: giving things away makes me feel like I have more than enough. Every. Time.

I figure that that big bad guy, Corporate Guy Out There, spends all of his time crafting ways to make me feel like I don't have quite enough, and thus pushing me to consume.  Consume what I can not afford, what I do not need, what does great harm in its very manufacture and distribution.  And so often, I'm falling for it. Over and over, I'm all like, "Yeah, you're right! I do need that!" Moron.

Giving away is a great big F*%k You to Corporate Guy Out There.  In one fell swoop, it is my statement that I have more than enough and that the receiver can get what they need without buying into the system.  So amazing, right?

Now in case you missed it, cause I'm subtle like that, here's the tricky bit:  to make this work, we all need to not only give what we have away, but receive what is freely given.  The first half of the equation is so awesome because we get to feel our affluence and the warm fuzzies of being a provider.  The second half? Not so much.  Buying what we need is kind of empowering: "I'm captain of my own ship! Tally Ho!"  Being given what we need, for free? Kind of like cash at the grocery store for me.  It is an admission of my own finite resources, of my own need for the generosity of others to sometimes step in and provide what I can not, for whatever reason. 

That is exactly where the power of this one lives: when we live in the ebb and flow of giving and receiving to and from our neighbours (the people we run into who need what we have to give, and have to give what we need), the structures that have been built to get us to Buy More! Have More! Get More! become useless and unnecessary. It's magic. 

And so, Idea #7 is a two-pronged one:  I will start to listen more carefully for the knocking at my door, when my neighbours arrive and ask for what I have to give.  And equally, I will make known my need and receive what is offered, believing that both actions undermine a system that I believe to have done us all great harm by convincing us that we are our own providers.

Occupy Me.


IDEA #7 Response:
What have you given that reminded you of your own abundance? When have you last received something you would have preferred to have provided for your own self?

Links To Good II

I like how many people like to fix things.  I like that I know them, espcially the ones with sewing machines, since I am sew-stupid when it comes to the repair and life-lengthening of fabric goods.  I got two great links for this:

From Brian: Learn the 4th R, Repair
From Ryan, a fixer of many things: iFixit

I also like that many people have found their own end-runs around unfairness.  I will note that these were all American examples, and that it is easy to point at the US and say that they're so much worse than we are and thus excuse ourselves from action, but Walmart is here and lots of other large retailers who treat their employees poorly in order to maximize profits for the already-rich-people who own them.

From Laura:  The Moral Undergroud

And then this video, which was emailed to me and then posted on my wall, and then posted all over facebook. So simple, so easy, and right up my "I'm not tenting with 2 preschoolers" lane...

From Mary: Keep Wall Street Occupied

And then a link to a holiday destination that passed one reader's Good For You, Good For Me evaluation - fair wage, fair work, decency of all sorts.

From MK:  Point-no-Point Resort

A Picture of Why Occupation

These pictures are obvious.  The contrasts shown will come as no surprise to anyone I know who views them. Most know that the second and fourth images ought not to be.  I wonder though if in fact, the first and third ought also not to be - they are only possible because of their opposites.  The awful of the latter images is built on a deeper awful hidden in the former.

I doubt my choice to pay cash at the grocery store will make food acquisition any easier in Somalia. But it will be my own reminder to myself that I need not be wholly owned by a system that pays for my comfort with the struggle and pain of others.

This is the mess.  Those of us who "have never had it better", have it because there are so many who have never had it worse.  If I am silent...  well, I just can not be.

If my protest is judged ineffective by the very system who's measure of effectiveness is it's own growth, I am not concerned. It will be effective if I do a better of job of walking through this life awake, aware that I am not audience but actor on this stage and someone who can Do Something.  Even if it's just a tiny thing. I will not say, "But I didn't know."

I do know.

Occupy Me.

How I Get to Get Rice

How They Get to Get Rice

What Thanksgiving Preparation Looks Like for Me

What Thanksgiving Preparation Looks Like for Them

An Observation (ii)

A friend whom I highly esteem has wondered aloud in the hallowed hallways of facebook, What in fact, is the point of Occupy Vancouver? Vexed by the ambiguity of their self-proclaimed purpose, is perhaps closer to what he said.  He's a writer like that.  Vocabulary aside (and accuracy, for that matter), his question did leave me wondering if I was actually clear on what those tenters downtown are saying and if I needed to perhaps be a bit clearer about my own reasons for participating as I am.

The Occupy Vancouver website contains the following:

We, the Ninety-Nine Percent, come together with our diverse experiences to transform the unequal, unfair, and growing disparity in the distribution of power and wealth in our city and around the globe. We challenge corporate greed, corruption, and the collusion between corporate power and government. We oppose systemic inequality, militarization, environmental destruction, and the erosion of civil liberties and human rights. We seek economic security, genuine equality, and the protection of the environment for all.

I'm not sure I would call this ambiguous.

But of course, they have yet to describe what specific ends they are pursuing.  You know, using those SMART goals that were all the rage back in the early millennium. And I guess I can see how that is bothersome.

The difficulty is that specific goals and measurable outcomes are kind of what created the mess in the first place. Maybe it's time for a more hard-to-put-my-finger-on-it-but-damn-this-feels-different kind of change. Maybe it's time for all of us to decide that waiting to measure whether or not we're being Just Enough, or Equal Enough, or Integritied Enough (my apologies for the word-making-up, but some days the English language fails me) is in fact just a decision to change the paint on a crumbling building. Sure it looks a bit better, but ain't no paint gonna keep that thing standing next time it gets rocked, you know what I'm sayin'...?

And now, because the change can not be negotiated or bargained or bought, we of the Elevator Speech Generation are getting bored and want them to carry on to their next project.  But instead, they say they will stay.  They will endure cold and wet, the disdain of the many, the ire of the inconvenienced, the misunderstanding of the masses - they will endure all of that so that there remains a physical, hard-to-miss, traffic-wrecking reminder that The World Is Not How It Ought To Be.

I went searching for a quote of Martin Luther King Jr.'s that of course more poetically drew the point I am working at but found another that sent me reeling:

“Not only will we have to repent for the sins of bad people; but we also will have to repent for the appalling silence of good people.” - Martin Luther King

I am mostly certain that I am not a bad person. On my good days, I think I'm probably even good people. However, when I think that my silence might be added to the list of sins that must be repented for by The Saints... my heart weeps.

And so I'll blog on, and I'll put my lot with the dread-locked tenters and their grandmothering lawn-mates who are living together in solidarity with the Least, the Last and the Lost and inconveniencing us at every turn so that we can not say, "But no one told us."  The deepest injustices may not be happening on my block, or even in this nation of ours, it's true.  And yet we benefit and our lives are better because of evil done by others.  If I collude with my silence, I am no better.

Better.  It's an ambiguous goal. It lacks in specificity to be sure.  I can't even say if it's attainable or realistic. But it's worthy, and thus I'm in its pursuit.  I will make tiny changes and have great faith that even getting to A Little Bit Better will count as success. 

Occupy Me. 

The original quote I was seeking, I still think is worth including: “I said to my children, 'I'm going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don't ever want you to forget that there are millions of God's children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don't want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.” 

Idea #6: Fix It

I grew up in a disposable world where objects are not meant to be kept. The time and money required to fix things makes throwing them out the more reasonable option.  My in-laws have had the same toaster since they were married in 1957.  We've been married since 2003 and are on our third. I think this is probably a bad thing.

This month, an object lesson for me:  The year that our second was due to be born, I asked for a watch for my birthday. I was a tad obsessive about keeping track of breastfeeding and having a timing device within sight at all times seemed required.  I wore said watch for about 14 months before something sad happened and it kind of gave up.  Over the next months, it moved from the Find A New Battery pile to the Someone Should Put That Shelf to the I Can't Throw It Away Drawer.

Last week, I found it.

For almost two years, I had managed without it but when I saw it, I remembered how much I liked it, and how handy it is to have a watch on.  I remembered how much I use "What time is it?" as an excuse to check my phone which most often turns into quickly checking email, and then facebook and then a quick round of brickbreaker and What? you want dinner??  Yeah, that happens.

Maybe a watch would help. I should get a new one, I thought. Until I remembered the part where I'm trying to be more thoughtful about these things.

Turns out there are watch repair people who do more than change batteries.  One of them is tucked away in the corner of the Bay, and helpfully told me a quick fix of the hands was all that was required and we'd be back in business. Thirty-five dollars and seven days later, I've got a me a new watch.

Except it's not new. It's the same one as before, obviously.  But fixing it was new.  To me. 

My in-laws' toaster hasn't lasted 50 years because it's so awesome and has never broken.  It has lasted because when it breaks, Pops takes a day or two to figure out what's wrong with it, and then he fixes it.  Sure he's retired and has time and (insert reason why he can do what we can't here), but he fixed it when he was working. He fixed it when he didn't know how.  But he found time and he figured out how, because it was still mostly fine and that's the kind of man he is.

This may in part tie back to the last post on doing work I would prefer not to do. I am part of a generation of people who would prefer not to spend time or money on menial work like fixing things when we can in one fell swoop replace and upgrade.  No broken, no old, no out-of-date.  New! Shiny! Amazing!  We are raising children who won't even know that these things can be fixed, never mind know how to fix them themselves. Isn't this kind of terrible?

So I think I'm going to try looking at things with a longer view. I'm going to give our objects as long a life as I can.  I'm going to find people who know what I don't and can fix what I can't and see if that doesn't maybe just undermine a culture that has made not only broken objects, but broken people and broken relationships tossable.

I'm going to work towards being a keeper-longer fixer-upper.

Occupy Me.

IDEA #6 Response:
What objects have you found a way to keep around a bit longer by fixing them instead of replacing them? Who knows how to fix stuff that most of us throw out?

Idea #5: Do Work I Would Prefer to Pay For

This may be what is sometimes called "self-serving".  You've been warned.  And perhaps let me further warn you that this won't be the last time.  The genius of the human brain is its ability to tell a story that makes said human the hero as often as is necessary.  Today it appears to be necessary.  Or at least "necessary".

Some of you will recall a bit I wrote about Justice Pesto in another forum.  It was inspired by the ten minutes I spent harvesting basil for pesto-making this summer and my rapid descent from "Earthy Super-Mom" to "Carer for The Migrant Worker" to "Cursor at Small Children".  It was real heart-warming.

This afternoon, I had a similar experience doing some painting in the house.  As the wall was changed from white to vellum, my own self was changed from "Sharer Of Household Work" to "Resenter of Hard Work With Carpal Tunnel Syndrome".

I painted two walls.

Earlier in our renovation planning, I had planned to hire someone to do this work.  We feel short on time and have several difficult responsibilities that made this seem wise.  I even went as far to have someone come in and quote to do the work.  This person quoted what was most certainly a fair price for the work, but a price that was several hundred dollars more than I had thought it would be, and thus, more than we could afford.

While I was thinking we could get it painted, I felt quite rich.  Affluent really.  I thought about how great it would be to help a guy out by giving him work.  I thought about how I would probably offer him cool drinks and lunch, and then pay him on time and in cash and be one of his favourite clients.  I felt... well, better off, or something like that.

While I painted, I felt useful.  Then tired and cranky.  But useful.

I think the latter is better for me.

With my body doing all this painting, my brain had perhaps too much time to wander.  And as it wandered, it tripped over this thought:  When we pay for something, do we feel differently about it? Cause suddenly painting seemed like it should worth at least twice as much as this guy had quoted.  As I calculated how much SJ owed me for doing this job (for surely he owed me, right?), I had an hourly rate somewhere near our monthly car payments.

And this got me to the next bothersome thought:  does buying someone else's effort let me de-value them?  The very fact that I can afford to buy that work makes it cheap, right? And if it's cheap, and I don't consider my own self cheap, then I think that I might accidentally start believing that I'm worth more... Oh for eff's sake, as if I needed another flaw to fix.

It's some kind of weird cosmic math that I'm going a poor job of explaining, but what I'm getting at is this: maybe one reason people are occupying Wall Street and all the other streets is because a small group of people have cheapened a large group of people by buying them.  They buy them, trading those people's hard work for credit and fees and financial products of dubious worth.  I'm not sure how it all works, but somehow, in our current way of living together, we've managed to make a lot of people worth not quite as much as a few other people.

I'm pretty sure that's a bad idea. In fact, I'm certain of it. 

But good news! I think we can undermine the harm done every time we say, We will not be bought this time.  And we can say that by choosing independent businesses, or paying cash, or paying a fair wage, or producing our own food.

And we can say it by not buying each other.  At least not all the time. Obviously the world needs for us to exchange goods and services with each other, and pay those who can do what we can not.  But I think maybe it's good sometimes to do what we can (even if we can only do it badly and resentfully, muttering awful things under our breath), and remember why it's so valuable.

I think this is my point (finally!): it somehow increases the value of another's work when I have to do it. So maybe anytime I find myself accidentally thinking myself above another, I'll do their work and so restore their value in my own mind.

Occupy Me.

IDEA #5 Response:
What work do we often pay another for that we might then devalue? What work can we do in an effort to consciously esteem higher those with whom we might be tempted to do otherwise?

Links to Good I

One super-duper thing that is happening is that my friends are sending me all their secret ways around this world of ours that are doing great good.  Or sometimes just marginal good, but good is good and I'll take it where I can find it.  My hope is that each week, those of you reading will forward on your own links to good so that we can pass 'em on.  If everything works out like it does in the movies, this could be a weekly feature!

From Lisa:  NOWBC Co-op  Online farmers market!

From Laura: Better World Shopper  Evaluation of several major shopping categories including some Canadian stores (VanCity wins again!)

From Ali: Credit Card Rate Chart  Shows how much your card costs businesses. Turns out our cash back and Airmiles aren't so free after all...

Occupied: The First Week

Calvin gets it...

One thing about starting something new is that well, it's new.  And while new is often Shiny! and Bright! and Awesome!,  it's often also surprising and odd and unfamiliar.  There is the new car smell, tinged with the disappointment of a ding on the bumper.

There is much that is Shiny! and Bright! and Awesome! about Occupy Me, The First Week.  In five days, I've had almost 600 page views.  To be honest, I'm not altogether sure what that means, but it seems like a lot of views of the five pages that make up this blog.

And then there are the tiny steps: -I've had a friend let me know she's moving all her coffee meetings to small, independently-owned establishment.  Several people have said they too are on their way to a more cash-only way of living.  Neighbours have decided to host a locally-sourced dinner tomorrow night and all I have to do is source the wine part and a babysitter!  This is too much goodness for words.  Add the general interest and warm support of my favourite people who have taken a minute to say they like thinking in this general direction, and really, this can't be anything but Shiny! and Bright! and Awesome!

Except.

Except for the parts where I'm kind of failing already.  While we've only done debit this week, we haven't moved all the way to cash yet. While we want to support local, small business, tires are almost 40% more expensive here in Canada and we think we'll be driving south to replace our nearly-bald set. At Costco.

Lord.

The good news is that my not-quite-there-yet brings with it lots of grace and compassion.  I stand here with  all of us who truly, deeply want to undermine a system that is based on injustice and greed and all manner of wrong-doing that benefits the very few at the expense of all the rest.  I stand here not doing enough, but doing more than I did a week ago and have great faith that a tiny step can be fish'd and loave'd into great change.

If you have taken your own tiny step, I hope you'll find a way to let me know so that I can keep track.  One step you might consider is forwarding a link to the blog to people you think might be willing to take their own tiny step.  One of the magics of the interwebs is its power to multiply - one tiny step forward could help us get to hint o' great change.

Idea #4: Support A Living Wage

There are a few people in this world who don't deserve to earn a living wage.  They are the ones saving up for Sea Monkeys and/or find themselves on The Real Housewives of Anywhere. The rest of us should reasonably expect that the work we do sufficiently provide for what our lives require, be it home for a family or funds for school or maybe even a hint of future security in the form of savings.

One thing that is kind of terrible for me is that this beautiful province of mine, The Best Place On Earth no less, is also home to our nation's highest child poverty rates.  If you took your average preschool dance class, one of those seven kids would be living in poverty.  Not, "I guess you'll have to pay your own way through college" poverty, but "no, it's your brother's turn to wear the jacket poverty".  I know most of us like to think that it's because their parents are sitting around in their designer clothes playing XBox (as an aside, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard this indictment of poor families who are clearly only poor because they buy stuff, I'd have enough money to end the poverty), but in fact, more than half of them have parents doing paid work, and a third of them have at least one parent with full-time work. And they still have to choose between heat and hotdogs.

In my neck of the woods, a living wage has been calculated at $18.81 for each parent working full-time.  Minimum wage here is $8.75.  Full-time that's about $17,500 a year, or $1460 a month.


In my neighbourhood, say a family of four decides to squish up into a two-bedroom apartment.  Average rent for that two-bedroom (in 2009) is $1116. To meet the affordability threshold of 30%, both parents would have to have combined earnings of $3720.  Fully employed at minimum wage, they'd be $800 shy of that threshold. Sure they'd have more than $1800 to "spare".  But you know, by the time they pay for luxuries like cars and insurance and groceries and gas and school fees and maybe shoes... well, you know what I'm getting at.

Here's the thing. The facts can all be refuted and argued and yes but'ed, but the fact remains that part of what makes me feel rich is that so much stuff that I want or want to do is cheap.  And the main reason it's cheap is because someone has not been paid very much to get it to me, or do it for me.  Keeping other people poor makes me feel rich.

This is gross.

So here's my next plan.  I'm going to start looking for Living Wage Employers like VanCity.  I'm going to ask the places where I do business if they pay a living wage. I'm going to ask candidates in our local election if they support a living wage policy for our municipality like the one recently enacted in New Westminster. And the people I pay directly, I'm going to pay in such a way that I know their household is earning a living wage.

As I discussed this with a friend who is also a business owner, she pointed out that there is a point where upward pressure on wages means upward pressure on prices.  So I do all this knowing that as more and more employers adopt a living wage policy, and as our family slowly moves our business to living wage employers, we're going to be paying more for the things we want and the things we need and the services we enjoy.  And we'll probably feel poorer for it.

Unless making fewer people poorer actually makes me feel a tiny bit richer.

Occupy Me.

IDEA #4 Response:
Do you know employers who are choosing a living wage policy for their employees? If you're paying anybody to do anything, will you be able to start a move to a living wage policy for your own family?

Idea #3: Real Food

As far as I know, there is no Granola Conglomerate secretly running the world through the sale of rolled oats and dried fruit.  Probably there are some really bad dudes trading fancied up GORP but most of the purveyors in my local market seem to be of the small and sweet variety.

Still, when I read a recipe for granola I realized it might be possible to add said treat to my repertoire.  Turned out that it was more than possible and even preferable and now we are home-made granola eaters.  I'm not sure it saves us much money and lord knows it costs me time.  And yet, it feels important and so we press on.

One reason we press on is because I had read recently about trying to move from being a consumer to being a producer and making granola, even if I buy my oats pre-rolled and my fruits pre-dried, moves me just a little further along the continuum away from consumer.  I mean, we consume the granola, but we make it too and that just feels a bit better.

My friend Karen mentioned the appeal of those baby carrots in our initial FB dialogue about this and I have to agree that they are on the list of present day evils that I just keep buying.  Pre-cut, pre-peeled, pre-washed... what's not to love? except for the part where they are processed and machined and end up costing this little planet more than it can afford - carrots didn't use to require a fossil fuel to get ready to be sold did they? And now just putting those carrots in a plastic bag for sale means they're using oil.  And that doesn't even account for the energy used to work the machine that shapes them.

Turns out though, that the baby carrot was invented because so many other carrots were being tossed because they weren't pretty enough. This is probably sad, but I can't help but think that composting some ugly carrots is still better than using our resources to make them prettier. (And as an aside, why are we so obsessed with only eating pretty food? Anyone who has grown a garden knows you end up with a few... surprises. The surprises are the ones the kids are most likely to eat, aren't they?)

As ever, nothing is altogether clear, but I think I'll still be buying my carrots un-hussified so that I can be the producer of carrots sticks and carrots treats in my house. 

IDEA #3 Response:

What other foods can we add value to ourselves instead buying processed? How do we become better producers of our families' foods?

Update: Mamabear asked for the granola recipe.  There is no link because I read about 17 and then made up one that used what I had and a technique I liked. You can try it and then make it yours with your own tweaks.

ACJ's Resistance Granola:

Preheat oven to 275. Pour 2 1/2 c. rolled or quick oats onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet.   Sprinkle with maybe 1/4c. - 1/2c. slivered almonds, a tablespoon or two of wheatgerm if you have it. Bake for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, combine 1/4c. each of brown sugar, honey, vegetable oil and boiling water, plus cinnamon to taste.  Remove oats from oven, pour into bowl. Pour in sugar stuff, stir thoroughly. Return to cookie sheet, then oven for 45 minutes, turning over every 15 minutes or so. After 45 minutes, turn off oven, sprinkle about 1/4 c. each of dried cranberries and raisins over top and let cool.  Store in airtight container. Overcome the forces of Granola Evil in one fell swoop. 

An Observation (i)

I have started keeping a list of things I can do differently - I think I'm up to an even dozen? Not sure, but a lot, and they have so far come fast and furious and I want to write and post them all Right. Now.

But then I remember the part where I've still got a Costco list on my fridge and I bought everything (at the local market though) with my debit card today.

It is unlikely that I'm going to be able to do a change a day, even if it's a tiny one. I mean, I might do the change for the day, but to repeat it for several days, or maybe even longer than that - it seems unlikely if I keep adding a new one to take on every 24 hours.

So I'm going to just go at my own pace.  Probably I'll shop at Costco again, but I'm hoping this month I choose small retailers on Lonsdale over big box stores more often.  Probably we will sneak in a card purchase from time-to-time: we're in the middle of a reno and some of those purchases are just more easily made with a credit card.  But we'll add using cash to our routine and see how it fits.

In the meantime, know that I've got a brain's worth of thoughts brewing and eventually they'll get here.  Because as it stands, this isn't enough for me. I know there is more that I can do, and I'm not ready to let me off the hook yet.

Occupy Me.

Idea #2: Need Less

Catherine posted on the facebook page this:

We, the 99%, are as much a part of the problem as the 1%. Let's not forget that the debt of the 99% are the assets of the 1%. Wanna make a difference? NEED LESS! People need to stop living outside their means. 

Need. Less.  I'm on it.


This is going to be multi-post idea because there's a lot to it, but the first thing it got me thinking about was how credit has allowed me to believe we're a lot richer than we are. And every time we buy what we can not afford by using a credit card, not only do we lie to ourselves, we send our resources over to the very structures that are the problem.


The lie is the biggest problem for me.  The lie that I am rich.  It's a problem because I'm not as rich as a lot of people I'm buying like, and it's a problem because it alienates me from the ones I should be living like.  For a person of faith, there is no avoiding the hard truth that Jesus thought that the Least and the Last were where it's at, and that the Kingdom of God was for them.  When I align myself with the Most and the First, I step away from where my hope lies and that is soul crushing.


It also allows me to start believing that somehow I am an improvement on them, whoever they are.  That maybe it's because of my own wonderfulness that I can have all these markers of Most and First, instead of just because of some odd combination of fate and happenstance.  And if it's my goodness that has landed me here, it becomes possible to believe that it is their badness that has landed them where they are.  And if it's their fault, then there really isn't much I can do to help them until they help themselves.  


But if I feel the edges of my resources, if I bump into my Not Enough more often, if I reject the cushion of cheap credit and have to say no to things because I can't afford it - if I face my own poverty, then suddenly I am them too, and if I'm them then maybe I'm a bit more willing to help them.  Because helping them is helping me.  And we can be as warm-hearted as we want to be, but most of us do good best when we're doing it for ourselves.


So our family....  our family is going to try living within our means.  We have to talk about it, but I think it will look like moving to cash.  Cards not only allow the lie, but they also take money out of the hands of the merchants I am trying to support by charging them huge fees for accepting my Lie Payment.  If I pay with cash I not only know what I can afford but I land an extra 4 - 6% in the hands of my neighbours.  One action, two good outcomes.  I like this kind of math.


I'm not sure how this will go.  We already feel the edges of our resources too keenly.  Even though globally we are the richest, in our world we feel like we're barely making it.  I'm not sure we can do it, to be honest.  And it's not like we're in a lot of debt. If you don't count our massive mortgage, that is.  But we use credit to ease cash flow and justify things that we can't afford in the moment because we may be able to afford them later.  

This one's going to sting I think.


IDEA #2 Response:
What are other ways of moving to life within our means?

Idea #1: Shop More Wisely

This was the first image that grabbed my brains and shook 'em all around.  Not just the squint-making colour scheme, but the idea that being part of the Occupy Movement might be something I could do without living in a tent next to a portapotty downtown.  And that meant that this was the first thing that gave me hope that I might in fact, become part of the change. 

One thing I've learned about trying to do something different is that I have to make it possible.  And I can guarantee you that moving all of my shopping to local, independent merchants is unlikely. I like Thrifty's too much, and Costco still feels necessary to justify paying more for that good service back at said Thrifty's. I also just figured out that Banana Republic jeans fit me and are reasonable with the 40% coupon they seem to email me every other week.

But I can start... adjusting.  I can start moving my money towards independent retailers and vendors who may just be feeding their own families but are probably also feeding a few others.  I can afford to pay a bit more (5% more? 10% more? I don't know, but more. I can afford more.) for the privilege of saying Yes to the hard work and risk those merchants are investing in my community.

Puddlegear, Buddhakind Coffee Co., Norquip... these are my people who are working hard to provide something a bit better.  They feed their own families with this work, and then they feed a few others.  

IDEA #1 Response:

Who else do we know who we can support? How much more can you afford?

The Beginning

(GeneTaylor 2011-All rights reserved. )

There is a possibility that change is coming.

It is a certainty that change is desired by many and that the many are gathering in cities across Canada and the United States as part of the Occupy (My Town) movement.

I want things to change too. 

But when I read a sign like this one, I worry I won't change anything enough to keep the poor from coming after me when they run out of food.  Because despite how poor I feel on almost any given day, there is no denying that I am the rich.

So being rich, and wanting change, I am going to keep track of all the ways we rich kids can make a change. Even though we feel poor, we can be change-makers.  Surely that is so.  Lord knows that we've changed this world for the not-so-good pretty thoroughly - imagine if we harnessed our power in a new direction?

Watch here for ideas and observations about what might be done.  And more importantly, post here or on facebook, what you are doing or have seen being done that makes you think change might be possible.

Because if the change is going to take, it has to take with me too.  And then you.

Occupy Here.
Occupy Me.