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.


