One of my favorite things I learned on my stay in Mexico City was that, as a cultural norm, nothing is wasted or thrown away that can serve another purpose. This was a sentiment in the United States as well, not too long ago, when the second world war created the necessity of frugality and re-use. But since that time Americans have been drifting away from that important philosophy. My elder relatives who had survived the second war to end all wars drilled this philosophy in to me from an early age, when they were still alive to do so, and to this day I try to remember to keep the spirit of this important idea alive. But with the over-commercialized b-day of Gods number one son approaching, it is starting to become exhausting to repurpose the waste that is, on a daily basis, vomited upon me through the US Mail system. Nickels coming from Easter Seals, lots of them, intended to GUILT me into donating to their cause, which I painstakingly collect out of the envelopes they send me and redistribute them to those who could use them. (Jesus, by the way, the whole reason for celebrating Easter, was all about sending around government coin in an attempt to guilt you into giving your money to wealthily aristocratic religious monoliths!) But I cant bring myself to simply throw them out, its perfectly good currency that, however small, could serve someone struggling very well. And I cant keep these ill-gotten gains, as Im not donating to their cause, so it just doent seem right to hold on to their (albeit-unsolicited) funds. So I painstakingly collect them from my mail, remove the sticky backing to render them useable, and pass them on as soon as I see a person who looks like they could use them. And then the unsolicited packages of Christmas cards that seem like they would be the antithesis of the historical Jesus philosophy start arriving in droves, with requests to use them and then donate to the Catholic Church, an interesting marketing ploy considering Im not a member of that church and despite the strives made by the current pope to modernize the religion Im still not a fan of those who would shelter pedophiles and bigots from the arms of justice; so I wont be donating there either. I found a nice huddle of little old ladies outside the post office who looked the part of true believers, and passed the stacks of cards off to them, and they thanked me profusely. But honesty, maintaining my own values amid this title wave of guilt exploitation is exhausting me. I dont know how much longer I can keep up with the haves attempts to squeeze more guilt money out of the haves-less by continuing to turn their waste into something positive. I mean, seriously, Catholic Church, if you are so desperate for more funds to help people with, that you are willing to cut down a few forests in order to guilt people into giving it to you, why dont you try selling off one of those golden toilet bowels in the Vatican to get the funds you need, and sit your asses on porcelain for the sake of the homeless. But I guess I have no choice but to try to do my part to undue the wastefulness these organizations have bestowed upon me.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 22:52:20 +0000
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