New Vs. Old. The age old debate? Or the yin and yang of consumerism?
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been picking up increasing chatter in regards to solving the global supply chain crisis by buying less stuff. Some have gone so far as to suggest buying nothing this year for Christmas. I don’t know about you, but taken to such an extreme, this sounds like Breatharianism all over again. (You know, the people who claim they subsist on breathing alone. Yes, this is a thing. It’s just not a very long lived thing.)
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for slimming down the consumerism-fattened Santa of the modern Western World. Maybe put the fat boy on a bit of a Paleo diet. I’d even go along with some Freegan-style dumpster diving in certain parts of the United States. I have it from reliable sources that in places like NYC, you can legit populate the underside of your Christmas tree with stuff for free if you keep an eye out on garbage day.
Just this past week, my family started volunteering at our local food bank. The gal in charge insisted my oldest son take a couple ultra-fudgy-brownie cakes to his youth group since the desserts were expiring and would have to be thrown away. After youth group was over, I asked my son about his favorite part. He said he liked being able to bring a dessert that would have gone to waste otherwise. I get it. It feels good to snatch something from the landfill or the Pacific Gyre and give it a good home. (I realize putting chocolate in teenagers is of debatable moral value.)
But this comes down to the debate over new versus used, not about whether or not to consume anything at all. In fact, I don’t think we have one without the other. You are probably not aware, and many of you will attempt to argue for your own home town, but my little scrap of Idaho is without a doubt the uncontested Thrift Store Capital of the United States. Thrift, secondhand, and discount stores make up like 15% of the local economy. Professional thrift store shopper is a legit career around here.
Our unique economic microcosm is only made possible by the constant stream of Californians relocating to Idaho long enough to jettison their wardrobes before being ushered out of town riding a rail. This enables over half the local populous to outfit themselves via thrift stores. And I’m all for it. I’m even a pretty standard-sized guy, so getting my swank on at the secondhand store is almost as easy as helping Amazon squeeze its suppliers. But none of this “thrifting” would be possible without some of us being wasteful and opulent consumers. Thus the yin and yang of American consumerism.
So after you toss your old-but-still-totally-viable stuff out on the curb or drop it off at the local thrift store this winter, make sure you open up some brand new shiny objects at Christmas. It’s the least we can do to keep our materialistic yin and yang in balance.
At the Desk This Week
I’m still making progress on my edit of the third season of The Green Ones. I’m almost done, I swear! I’ve got half of the last episode left. I really love how things are cleaning up and coming together. This project has taken me almost 18 months to complete, which is much, much longer than any single project since my very first attempt at completing a book. It’s been different. This might be my new normal moving forward, or perhaps I’ll get a bit quicker again. We shall see.
If You Wish to Start Reading The Green Ones…
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