Where Am I Wearing?

I mentioned Where Am I Wearing? awhile ago in this blog entry. I finished reading it yesterday.

To begin anything I have to say about it, I want to point out just how cool it is that the author of the book actually left a comment on that last entry.

How awesome is that! I've had that happen a few times now... authors of books I've written about, or owners of the gDiaper company etc. seeing I've written about them on my blog because of my links.

Kelsey Timmerman talks in this book about shortening the gap between producer and consumer and that's partly what's happening when an author is able to comment on my blog because I've mentioned him at all!

Anyway, he wanted to know what I think, so I'm going to try to respond to that.

To begin... I'm very grateful for this book. It's both accessible for someone like me... mom who frankly would usually prefer to just enjoy some fiction with my few minutes of reading time each week. At the same time, it's so reasonable the things he has to say, refusing to look at anything in black and white, but instead telling the stories of real people in our world and the way they really live. He takes the time, too, to share his occasional feelings of guilt about our way of life here by comparison. When he does that, I feel better about myself too. If I don't, the guilt can become so overwhelming that it's too easy to shutdown and give up on trying to figure out "the right thing."

When I was in TX, my grandmother made a reference to the blog entry I link above. She spoke to me about the way her life was in the Depression. She was dirt poor and had to work hard just to survive.

She told a story of working for days on end washing a woman's windows. In the end of her hard work, she went to the woman who only gave her an old lady's dress in payment.

My grandmother was upset -- and rightly so. But her mother told her not to fret about it, and they undid the dress and remade it into a new one.

My grandmother talks about how she learned from her mother how to take what you have and work with it and not to judge that woman harshly because also must have been poore.

She also talked about a cafe in which she worked that didn't pay her enough. But, she said, if people boycotted the cafe, she would have had nowhere to work.

And I see her point with those things. I see the point of doing what you can with what you can. I see the point of not boycotting irresponsibly.

And the same time, we are so incredibly powerful in the U.S., just by being consumers. And if we take that power for granted, we're both stupid and irresponsible.

All of these things are true. One does not outweigh another.

At the end of the book, Kelsey (I'm using his first name instead of his last because it feels more friendly, now that we're sort of almost communicating directly...) lists some things you can do depending on your goals. He talks about researching where your clothes come from, circumstances under which you might want to just buy American products etc. I hesitate to list too many thoughts because I really hope to encourage others to read the book.

But I do want to share my plan.

I like when I buy second hand because I feel it is better for the environment. So sometimes that's the thing I want to do and in fact I got 5 shirts at Goodwill the pther day for just $25.

But then I'm not using my consumer power as well. So sometimes I want to shop for good quality stuff that I can trace and that I'm willing to pay good money for. This includes buying organic goods when I can etc.

But when I just need some STUFF... t-shirts or whatever, I think I might sometimes just have to go to Target. If I do that, I think I'll choose to buy things not from China if possible... I was never fans of our relationship with that country, regardless of what I read in this book.

If I buy a t-shirt that was made in a country where someone had to work very very hard making it, just to make ends meet, I'd like to offset the damage that is being done within the system. By buying the shirt, I'm helping them continue a job, even if it's not a job I would want. But I want to make it possible that that person could get another job someday. So I would want to give an equal amount of money to an organization that gives loans to women trying to start up a business. (In the past I've already given tzedakah to FINCA.)

Not that I buy a LOT of clothes, but I'm trying to make smart choices, and maybe inspire those around me to do the same.