Trigger warning that this might raise your defenses so I’m going to offer a tool to get through it. It’s the same thing I suggest to people when learning about racial justice. 1) Read it like it’s not referring to you 2) Then, after you’ve read it, think about how it is referring to you. 3) Let yourself get defensive 4) When you’ve calmed down, spend some time thinking about how there are truths in it and how you can do better.
If you’ve been staying tuned in any capacity to the news recently, you’ve seen there has been a report released about the dire future of climate change. As someone living in the Midwest, it’s frightening thinking about the high temperatures it is projected to reach here and the effects that will have on our crops and farms, the heart of who we are. We have to start being accountable for our actions. Yes, it will require policy changes at the local and federal government level but change like this also starts in our homes, in our families.
Does the research not inspire you enough to make sacrificial changes? Ok, how about if we think about it in terms of sticking it to The Man. And The Man I’m referring to is big corporations. Nothing sends me into a fury more than when I think about the gross pay gap between CEOs and their employees. Or the complete disregard these huge companies have for the horrendous environmental impact their products and manufacturing are having on our planet. And do you know why they are allowed to disregard it? Because we continue to enable them. We go to Starbucks frequently, we decorate our homes from the beauties in Target, we clothe ourselves by clicking a button on the Nordstrom website, we clean our homes with cheap cleaning products bought at Walmart. We have got to start sticking it to these companies! I’m the first to say that, on occasion, I make purchases from big companies but it is only after I’ve done my due diligence by looking secondhand, trying to make it myself, trying to make due with what I already have, thinking outside the box. Every time we do something like that and refuse to buy from these big companies it is called little acts of rebellion. Every time I buy something from a thrift store, I’m sticking it to The Man! Every time I make my own cleaning products or lip balm or lotion or candles or buy local or go without or cook from scratch or repurpose wood from an old project or make my own coffee or patch up a hole instead of buying a new pair of pants… these are all little acts of rebellion! We are saying “we no longer support these CEOs who don’t even pay taxes while those who work for them can’t even make a living wage!” It’s infuriating!! And I haven’t even gotten into the nasty truths about the working conditions of overseas manufacturing of the products we’re buying.
We don’t need these abusive corporations but they need us to continue their awful ways so let’s stop being a part of the problem and become a part of the solution and join the revolution! It will take sacrifice. We will have to put more time and effort into it. We might not get to watch as much Netflix as we watched before. We might have to spend a few hours during the weekend to hit up a couple of thrift stores instead of going to the beach or out to brunch. We might need to stop eating so much meat. We might have to disappoint our children (gasp!) by not buying them the newest, shiniest toy. Use it as an opportunity to teach them about how to be someone who cares about our world and those who are being abused. I know it will take sacrifice. I’ve never pretended it wouldn’t but we can’t keep living this way. The research is showing us this (as it has for decades now). It’s time for us to start sticking it to The Man!
(P.s. the picture is of recent thrift store finds)