Following this link won’t take long at all (5 seconds?), and it only asks you one simple question.
But the result will make you fabulously wealthy.
That’s not bad for a non-hypnosis, non-pyramid scheme website.
Really, I found it truly…enriching!
As you may know, one of the aims of Breathe is to be a glitch in the consumer system, interupting the easy logic of want-spend-waste with a different message of giving and receiving.
Unfortunately the system is fighting back in the form of an internet glitch (or maybe one of us just pressed the wrong button!). Anyway, we hope to get it fixed next week, but if you’ve tried to email us in the last 2 weeks, or subscribe to Breathe, please could you resend to mark.powley@sph.org.
Some ads are subtle and others are less so like this one.
They even have a website where you can learn good reasons to be selfish which is hardly a quality our nation is short of. Time is apparently ‘woman’s greatest enemy’ and the way to freedom, the way to harness time, the way to make it your friend is to be selfish, is to have more ‘me’ time. It’s a concept which I hear a lot, it’s an idea that is most definitely in the church, it’s in my life. I need ‘me’ time, to focus on myself and that’s just one step from saying “It’s OK for me to be selfish.” It is good to spend some time in quiet, to do things on you enjoy, it is good to have time for reflection but it is never good to be selfish. A selfish approach to time means I’m deliberately putting myself above others, I’m consciously making MY agenda the top one, the prime one, the most important one. Life, even for a short time, becomes about me. For most people this is entirely reasonable but for someone whose life belongs to Christ it’s not so reasonable. In fact you could argue it’s sin. We need a radically different view of time that frees us from the demands of a busy life. that sees it as a gift and every moment to be enjoyed. For that try this from Tim Chester or consider this from the Promise of Life,
“Because life is a gift, we live it thankfully Savour what we have Pray for what we need. No longer hurried, distracted, or worried, We’ll walk through each moment with God”
Don’t be selfish, be free
If you haven’t seen this yet, it would definitely be a good investment of 20 minutes of your time. It’s been viewed 6 million times already (maybe everyone else has seen it but me). Annie Leonard takes a very fast, witty, sharp trip through consumerism and the impact it has. For instance, she uncovers the hidden costs of production, the deliberate planning of obsolescence, and the work-watch-spend treadmill. Brilliant.
OK, so it’s a little simplistic, too - I’m not so sure about some of the stats, and the stuff on toxins (there’s a bit more analysis of her stats on wikipedia). However, I think the role of videos like this is to set some good terms for debate. I remember a debate on economic justice where an opponent of Fair Trade was saying that it wasn’t an ideal system – there are potential downsides, and other approaches that might be more effective. To which my response was – great! Fair Trade has provoked the debate. And it has set the terms for debate. If there are robust answers to the Fair trade case, they should be heard (personally speaking, I’ve not heard that many). Maybe in some ways it can be improved. But having improved Fair Trade options is better than what we used to have which was none at all!
In the same way, I think The Story of Stuff sets the terms brilliantly for a debate on the costs of consumerism. If some of the emphases could be tweaked, then fair enough. But I’m not sure that the substance of her case can really be answered. The best thing is to let the debate (and the lifestyle changes) continue. I hope you enjoy it.
“I’m routinely astonished by how seriously people in power take the impact of advertising on children and how relatively unbothered they are by its impact on adults,” writes Alain de Botton. “At what precise moment is one supposed to accede to that magical age when one can be confident enough not to be seduced by the satanic genius of advertisers?”
Indeed. Interesting little article from Alain de Botton in today’s Observer.
I thought this excellent 2 minute video from some friends of mine deserved its own post. Enjoy.
Mark and Ailsa - the World's Simplest Parents (not)
Four years ago I asked Ailsa, my wife, if we could share our experiences using washable nappies with the wider Breathe network. Now, only 48 months later, I make good my promise! In an effort to redeem the situation, I asked if we could include some other experiments we’ve tried. I hope they inspire / provoke thought. Please bear in mind that we’re on a journey with all this stuff, and that these are the steps that fit the way we’re made as a couple and how our life is currently shaped. If you’re a parent, some of this may be no good to you at all, and I’m sure we’d have things to learn from your experiences, too. One day maybe our three boys (now aged 6, 3 and 1) will be able to say how it all turned out!
1. Washable Nappies
We got into this for mainly financial reasons (apparently it costs something like £1,000 per child to use nappies). But we were also concerned about throwing so much away. It’s a worrying thought that one of the few legacies we leave to the world could be a collection of soiled nappies (they can take 100 years to decompose). Ailsa estimates that our Motherese nappies, which we highly recommend, will have cost us abot £600 for three chldren’s worth. Even with electricity and water costs, we’ll probably end up having saved over £2,000. It really is a heck of a lot of washing, but we feel it’s been worth it. read more…
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
This is interesting:
“But as much as we have been bombarded with media messages about the pleasures of consumerism, so there has been a growing sense of its costs – a realisation that the great national spending spree is both economically unsustainable and inimical to a healthy and happy life. This feeling may be detected in the rise of what the social theorist Kate Soper had described as ‘alternative hedonism’ – a recognition of the pleasures of slow, rather than fast, food; of simple living, a life less dominated by the car, air travel and the computer screen, a respite from the anxieties of status and from being judged not by what you are but by what you own.
In this light, could the recession actually prove, in some way, to be a benefit? A salutary shock to a system that is not working, like the first twinges of chest pain that tell you that you really should slow down if you want to avoid a heart attack. An opportunity to reassess our attitudes to consumerism, and to discover that as we economise and buy fewer things, that we don’t actually miss them, and didn’t really need them in the first place.”
From the Daily Telegraph of all places. (HT: Make Wealth History)
A world without money is an attractive idea, one replaced by kindness is even better. In fact the kindness idea is at the heart of Christian ethics in how we treat and do business with one another. Only this rendering of it hasn’t been imagined by a church but by a vodka company. What’s going on? Not only that but it’s the Vodka company that are putting that into action (well for a week anyway).
It’s a Vodka company that says, “In An ABSOLUT World, purses, wallets and jingling pocketfuls of change would be things of the past as Acts of Kindness became the new currency.Your riches would genuinely reflect what you added to the world. In An ABSOLUT World, who would the millionaires be? Would you be one?”
They’ve even co-opted it into a kindness movement although because it’s a drinks company only those over 18 can join.
On the one hand any promoting of kindness is good, any challenging of greed is good but it’s a shame that in our world it needs to be done by companies, that moral virtues are now also commercial campaigns. That we need a drinks company rather than the church to call the world to kindness through creative thinking and use of media.
Ironically though for if a world was this good we probably wouldn’t be drinking vodka.
I had a great day yesterday at the Chinese Church in London. I was taking part in a conference called Shape Up (How to Survive the Credit Cruch and Support People). I was billed as a Lifestyle Guru (see picture) though I can’t decide if the image is flattering or not!
Anyway, I led a Breathing Space (group discussion) on simple living. As ever, I was amazed at how people instinctively grasp where our current way of life is going off the rails. We spoke about money and worry, about advertising and shopping, about technology, about where our food comes from and how we raise children. Thankfully, the other thing I can always count on is that sharing the problems and openly discussing solutions can always lead to powerful change. Here are some comments from the day:
“Now I’m old, my house is full of possessions and all of it is junk. What I want to do now is devote my money to giving, and storing up treasures in heaven”
“I haven’t watched TV for 7 years, and I’ve had much more time to get out and do things”
“It’s hard being a parent. There’s so much peer pressure on our kids, even in the church”
This last comment really got me thinking. How do we help children to resist peer pressure? How can the church model and encourage a different approach? We’re going to give this some thought in our house and make some tentative suggestions, but it would be great to know others’ ideas, too.
