Rational Points on a Napkin

The Story of Stuff

I was introduced to a video yesterday about our production and consumption of goods. The Story of Stuff was brilliantly done, surprisingly leaving me in an inspired mood. It tied different breakdowns I now see into one large story, the story of consumption.

Besides posting about this video, which I suggest you watch, I also wanted to take a moment for reflection and to share new declarations in my life.

As I've become more aware of "Sarah the consumer", I have changed my habits in a few ways:

1. I try to buy locally whenever I can, whether food stuff or products. My mission this holiday season was to get all my gifts from local Berkeley artisans. And I did. I bought fewer gifts, of higher quality, and I felt...joyful. It was such a better experience spending a day walking around Berkeley and Oakland shopping at small vendors than going to a large mall and crowding into stores to get “stuff” and “more stuff.”

2. I try to no longer buy cheap goods. If something costs more, it is often of higher quality, and will last longer. My ultimate goal as I settle down is to buy very few things for my house, but to invest a lot of money in them. I take better care of those things which are dearer to me. This will also mean that I will consume less “stuff” over my lifetime.

3. I have moved off of “toxic” household cleaners and toiletries and on to natural products. We live in a society that dumps toxins into our world, without thought or care to what we are doing. As I've become an observer of this and called it a waste, continuing along this path is no longer an option for me.

I'm hoping that where previous generations have had the notion of “the American Dream” and the “white picket fence,” my generation will question this and come up with new answers. Most Americans do not have the white picket fence; that number continues to decrease as the middle class shrinks. We have numerous breakdowns caused by the way our society lives. I would love to be involved in a generation that resolves many of these breakdowns, creating a sustainable, less materialistic, and happier life for us.

Neighbors Project

I had a lunch on Friday with Kit Hodge, a friend from college that I hadn't talked to for years. It was wonderful to see her and to catch up. Since 2000, she's done a lot of grassroots work in neighborhood issues in New York (and, I think, Chicago).

We spoke a while about Neighbors Project, the organization she is now President and CEO of. It is grassroots movement of young people (20-30 years old) living in cities, working to improve the quality of public life in our urban neighborhoods. The organization was started in 2006 by people worried about "both the increasing polarization of our country due to expanding suburban sprawl and the polarization in our city neighborhoods due to increasing gentrification."

What struck me about Neighbors Project as I searched the website and in my conversation with Kit, was its relevance to one of my recent concerns. I am interested in enriching our communal spaces -- environmentally, culturally, our language and media. Neighbors Project showed me that many of these things could be done by all of us, by the caring of our neighborhoods. By supporting local merchants and farmer's markets, your money stays in the community, and out of large chains' hands. By having birthday parties in local parks or biking more, we care about the urban environment and safety around us. By saying hello to neighbors or organizing neighborhood watch communities, we begin to care for the individuals in our community. Planning and engaging in local film festivals, we support our arts and culture.

The Neighbors Project brings simple checklists for people: sitting and reading on your front stoop, getting to know all your elected officials in person, or repairing your bike on the sidewalk. The lists are simple actions that people can pick up, one at a time, as they learn to improve their relationship to their community and their community's relationship to them. Very practical... and very appealing.