DiamondAir

From: "John O. Andersen" <editor@...>
>The intent is to get people to reconsider their priorities. It's not
>against shopping, stores, or gifts. It's against overconsumption.

I'm glad to see this topic here, even if it is a bit off the path from
Unschooling. Life's lessons and the world economy, our impact on others,
etc. are all a part of what we are trying to bring to our children's lives.
If I had thought about it, I should have contacted you John, we were in
Portland for Thanksgiving after spending a lovely time at Timberline Lodge
on Wednesday (what a beautiful place!), and we spent Friday at OMSI before
going to the tree lighting in Pioneer square. Maybe next year we will join
you for the Buy Nothing Day, though we did have fun at OMSI.
IMHO, the day-after-Thanksgiving sales are usually a crock anyways - maybe
one or two items are really on sale, and the rest are marked down from
already-overinflated prices. If you really want to save money, shop the day
after Christmas. That's when the stores have decided they've wrung all the
money out of consumers that they can for the holiday season, and cut their
losses. :-)

As for us, we just plain old don't do the mall shopping thing at ALL. It
drives me up a tree, I guess I'm one of those shopping-challenged women,
LOL! For Christmas, we give hand-made gifts. We might include the
fire-started pinecones, this year, that's a great idea! We're giving some
jars of jam we canned earlier this year, some beeswax rolled candles,
home-made cookies and fudge, and a homemade ornament. We also give animals
from Heifer Project ( www.heifer.org ).

So John, thanks for continuing to share your unconventional ideas, I always
find them interesting to read. I was especially interested in your essay on
jobs. My husband started his own business doing aircraft detailing (or as he
says, he's a "glorified janitor") and we've found it gives us tons of
flexibility, time, and the ability for him to be his own boss, and it pays
well. My step-brother similarly has his own business cleaning range-hoods
for big restaurants. He travels all over the country, makes tons of money,
and loves it. There are tons of niche-markets in the cleaning industry that
are lucrative and not very time-intensive. It's great for people to know the
range of possibilities out there!

Blue Skies!
-Robin-
Mom to Mackenzie (8/28/96) "Some mommies send their nummy milk up into the
sky and that becoms the milky way at night"
and Asa (10/5/99) who does somersaults
http://www.geocities.com/the_clevengers Flying Clevenger Family