Everyday Boy

Gleaners & Consumers?

A couple of summers ago I remember enjoying seeing Jean-François Millet's painting The Gleaners at the Musée d'Orsay.

Tonight on a recommendation from Karen, Annalese and I watched the film documentary The Gleaner's & I.

I did not quite make it to a reading group I have been meaning to go to, but I read some of the recommended articles: What is Wrong with Capitalism? The Problem with the Problem with Capitalism by Daniel M. Bell, Jr. and A Global Market - A Catholic Church: The New Political (Ir)Realism by D. Stephen Long.

So between the film and the articles I have had much food for thought as it comes to our world of consumerism, economics and stewardship. I recall a friend who has written about how our culture and society has seemed to accept the meta-story of economics as its' central story. Our lives can be driven by work and money and the bottom line, so much so that we can often lose our humanity.

So what is the alternative? Is it possible to live in some sort of sustainable economy of enough, where we recognize that we don't need to horde or endlessly produce, and that there is enough for everyone?

I always seem to go back to Mary Jo Leddy's words about living in gratitude. An attitude whereby we are allowed to give and receive freely, because we recognize our abundance... but it doesn't always seem to translate into life so easily. I have been challenged as to how I am respond to a friend who is poor but also an addict. How am I supposed to care for others while not forfeiting my own life. Or is my life to be forfeit? How am I to disperse my money, time and resources, be responsible and yet care for others, enjoy life yet not waste it away? Do I allow people to glean from my life? And even in these questions I see a very self-centered point of view and wonder if a more collective response is needed.

Madeline L'engle writes:

Our surroundings were not yet as unreal as they were to become. In the world of the theatre we touched on reality itself, and were shocked as the world around us seemed to reach our for the unreal. Planned obsolescence was just coming in, objects made with less than excellence, built to destroy themselves or to wear out. Plastics and synthetics were just becoming available to the public. The word synthetics is enough: unreal.

Today we live in a society that seems to be less and less concerned with reality. We drink instant coffee and reconstituted orange juice. We buy our vegetables on cardboard trays covered with plastic. But perhaps the most dehumanizing thing of all is that we have allowed the media to call us conumbers - ugly. No! I don't want to be a consumer. Anger consumes. Forest fires consume. Cancer consumes. (Glimpses of Grace, 24)

Money, Money, Coffee

For money you can have everything it is said.  No that is not true.  You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace.  The shell of all things you can get for money.  But not the kernel.  That cannot be had for money.

- Arne Garborg, writer (1851-1924), from A Word A Day.

To a certain extent, I would hope that I know I cannot buy the kernels of life.  So with the things we need. the things we want, and the things we end up buying, after such a consumer driven season I wonder, am I being shrewd and wise with how I do spend on the shell of all things.

In one instance, I have been challenged to look at how I spend my money on coffee. I recently read an interview in the new issue of Beyond magazine, touching on relationship coffee - a bit of an offshoot of the idea of fair trade coffee, where barristas are cutting out the middle-people in their transactions with coffee growers, and going straight to their source, trying to build a more real working relationship with their suppliers, hopefully guaranteeing fairer prices for the growers, and better quality cofee for customers.

One of my housemates actually challenged my Starbucks buying ways this past year, asking if I was making sure if the coffee they were serving was actually fair-trade, as they may not serve it and you may have to ask for it specifically.  It made me be a bit more aware, and so I trotted along down to the Think Cafe which my housemate informed me has fair trade coffee on tap.  I am interested in learning a bit more about this coffee business. The interview touches on how it's not necessarily about changing the whole coffee industry, but making choices and making changes on at least our level - in our everyday. One block away, one shelf away, one click away - perhaps can make all the difference, somewhere, somehow.