John O. Andersen

The intent is to get people to reconsider their priorities. It's not
against shopping, stores, or gifts. It's against overconsumption. It's
against spending too much time in material pursuits and not enough with
children or other loved ones. It's against losing sight of deeper values as
a result of too much energy spent chasing after the ephemeral.

As it says on the World Buy Nothing Day website
(http://www.ecoplan.org/ibnd/ib_index.htm), it's "the one day a year we turn
off the economy and talk about it."

That's all.

John Andersen
Uncoventional Ideas: A Collection of Short Essays Which Question Mainstream
Values
http://www.unconventionalideas.com



----- Original Message -----
From: <SandraDodd@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2000 6:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] Digest Number 875


> In a message dated 00-11-25 15:01:50 EST, you write:
>
> << but I feel it might be more of a crusade to protest something of
> value instead of one shopping day a year:-) >>
>
> I agree.
>
> That fateful biggest-shopping-day, I bought cloth for Holly's girlscout
> uniform, and I went to a Salvation Army thriftstore which was having a
> $1-per-garment sale. Both sales were on because it was the Thursday
after
> Thanksgiving. Had I needed or wanted to go to one of the malls in which
I've
> been shopping since I was a teenager (and that was the 1960's/70's) I
would
> have been pretty miffed if I'd had to face people yelling at me about
> ANYTHING.
>
> Christmas gift-giving is one of my best things. My siblings and cousins
used
> to call me "Sandra Claus" even when we were kids because I could do
something
> cool without a bunch of money. It's one of my few creative talents. I've
> fallen down some with being older and having other things to think about,
but
> shopping sales is a very good thing to do. It would be "better" (not good
at
> all) to protest those who wait until December 23 or 24, but some of them
do
> so because they have no days off earlier, or no money earlier.
>
> Yesterday I split little matching (matching length) cedar sticks to dip in
> wax to bundle to give to friends as fire-starters. I'll pack them in
little
> baskets (thrift store, garage sale, things gifts were given to me
in--they're
> all out in the garage, and I'll just dig through for some good sizes) and
> stick a bow on them and maybe put a little bag of cookies.
>
> But I did go shopping Thursday, and I'm not evil nor stupidly mesmerized
by
> advertising.
>
> Sandra
>
> eGroups Sponsor
>
>
> Message boards, timely articles, a free newsletter and more!
> Check it all out at: http://www.unschooling.com
>
> Addresses:
> Post message: [email protected]
> Unsubscribe: [email protected]
> List owner: [email protected]
> List settings page: http://www.egroups.com/group/Unschooling-dotcom
>
>
>