clearbluecup

peeking in the door
silence overcame protest
soft breath, curled body

Some green news for you:

MEC Nixes Nalgene

"The fact that a retailer of this size, dealing in this volume of polycarbonate products, would make this decision should be a real wake-up call to other retailers,” Richard Smith, executive director of the group, said.

The Story of Stuff

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

And a short personal note: Today I received my first "hate mail" over on the Daily Mantra. Instead of feeling depressed or threatened, I feel like now I have arrived as an internet writer. It's somewhat odd that trolling and obnoxious comments are the hallmark of a certain level of readership, but that's the way it is I guess. I'm thankful that clearbluecup has remained apart from all that, probably due to a small but selective (and way cool) readership. :)

I know the tree in the living room is an intruder, and you are really only doing your part as a contributing family member by marking it as our property. I know it's really just too irresistible to have a tree just sitting right there. I know what I'm asking is unrealistic.

But please, please stop pissing on the Christmas tree.

Thank you.

suspicious puddles
underneath the christmas tree
oh, you naughty cat!

across the street there
are policemen with guns drawn
they come at harvest

dark grey sky hangs low
cars line up, waiting. their wipers
flail like antennae

~~~~~

I could write more, but I am being drawn to christmas crafting instead of writing right now. I'm spending my evenings hibernating on the couch with my knitting and episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

Winter is cold and dark and wet but it feels good to stay inside on a cold night.

I've been spending a lot of time sewing, knitting and generally being a crafty little Christmas Elf the past few weeks. Part of my motivation is selfish: I love spending time self-indulgently sewing, knitting and crafting. Doing these things to make gifts allows me to guiltlessly justify the time spent crafting instead of washing the dishes, doing the laundry or washing the floors. But part of my motivation is also an unwillingness to drop huge amounts of money at big-box stores on products that my friends and family may or may not actually like or use. Joining the flood of consumers who will stampede each other to grab up earth-killing plastic crap is both un-enjoyable and expensive, financially and environmentally. So I stay at home, make a nice cup of tea and do something I love for the people I love. It's a no-brainer, really.

It turns out that lots of other people are doing this these days, and it's turning into something of a revolution that is beginning to be noticed by people at the New York Times. Both the act of handcrafting and buying handcrafted products are being hailed as the new socially and environmentally conscious choice to make. It's getting easier for handcrafters to sell their wares with websites such as Etsy and Ebay providing premade online stores and shopping cart software, taking the technical difficulty out of setting up online selling and providing sellers with a growing market of people who are looking to buy handmade goods. Many people would rather buy from an individual than a faceless corporation because of the one-to-one connection, knowing that their money is supporting that individual doing something they love instead of paying sweatshop labourers a pittance and some fatcat CEO a fortune.

I would love to see more people supporting handcrafts by creating crafty stuff themselves or purchasing locally made crafts. If we all made more of our own stuff, maybe we wouldn't need Wal Mart anymore. Imagine that!