Alright so its been what? 8 months since I've updated this crazy thing? That's 3/4 of a year. you all probably gave up on me didn't you?? It's okay I gave up on me to..at least when it comes to "xangaland." I guess "Xanga" is a bit "Old fashioned" nowadays anyway---isn't that funny that in the electronic world something can be considered "outdated" in the matter of months?! Insane...yet another reason it makes me nervous to invest in things. However if you read your latest Huntingtonian Newspaper your handy dandy editor shared that blogging makes you a better writer...so maybe there's hope for all of the bloggers out there after all. Alright so on to what really made me motivated me to xanga tonight after so long for all 2 of you that will probably end up reading it, if I'm THAT lucky.... So would it be too cheesy and christian-ese of me to say that GOD has been stirring my heart in the area of Ethical Consumption? I first got intrigued when I heard about Fair Trade and the fair trade sales, though I never went. I always wanted to go, but never made it. Then I was pushed even further by an article in the Huntingtonian that talked about the impact that drinking coffee at Starbucks makes on impoverish coffee farmers. Its just been sitting inside me for awhile now-brewing and swelling. Then I started looking into fair trade online and what it meant to be a fair trade product etc. I also wanted to find out "all the companies I should boycott because they exploit people and the environment." But I left it at that and didn't find out for awhile-probably because I was afraid of the answer-the greedy selfish american materialist consumer in me didn't want to find out my favorite brands of clothes, toothpaste, and soda indeed exploited to make a buck.... Today things changed a bit. I finally went to the fair trade store in North Manchester with my wonderful fiance, Daniel, purposely to purchase as many of my christmas presents as possible. It made me so happy and it filled me with this amazing joy to be shopping there and seeing all the artisans beautiful work. My sweet Daniel put up with my 5-year-old excitement of giggling and grinning, and saying over and over "I'm so excited." But seriously, It was the most amazing thing I've done in a really long time...(I am now combating another sin now because of it-pride.) But anyway...The point is I wanted to make a difference this Christmas by not just going and buying from wherever for my family and closest friends. I must say they have beautiful items and I am thrilled to share Fair Trade with these people in my life. Here's the clincher though--then I got home so excited about becoming a better consumer so I get online and start searching for information about conscious consuming and that "inevitable" list of companies that I wanted to know about. What became increasingly frustrating is to find out MOST of everything we buy exploits people and the environment in some way. Some worse than others--but still almost all of them do. I cried as I looked through the list...not out of selfishness because I wanted to buy these products, but for how unaware and/or apathetic our world is to all of this. We buy blissfully unaware about how it effects the world around us. It sickens me to know that if I chose to boycott all the companies I found out about today-which was not even the "tip of the iceberg" my shopping options would be severely limited if not completely unavailable for some products. It makes me angry that businesses and corporations think that the sacrifices of human rights and environmental safety and preservation are worth making a buck. It also frustrates me that I was ignorant to it for so long and that most people will live their whole lives that way buying coffee that pushes already impoverished farmers into debt, buying clothes that 6 year old girls make in sweat shops12 hours a day in dangerous and unhealthy conditions, buying chocolate that is made from cocoa beans that destroy our natural rainforests and steal from local people a natural resource that used to be freely available to them, buying soda that is owned by companies that spill awful disgusting toxins into our world, rob countries and people of the only clean water source available to them to run their factories and so on and so forth. Is no one else outraged? Is no one else crushed by this devastating reality that we are in essence destroying our world and the people that share it with us with every purchase we make?? Part of me wishes I had of stayed ignorant...part of me wishes I had never found out about the atrocities going on around me because there is so little I can do...but the rest of me is overcome with joy that I am now aware and can me smart decisions. It hurts though to know I can't avoid it completely...and even in theory if I could I don't have the monetary resources to do so because I live in a society that from exploiting others we are actually providing better for our own poor (and often middle class) because that is all they can afford- most of us when we want bananas can't pay premium price for them to be sure they are fair trade...maybe that means I won't buy bananas unless I can afford that...But even essentials like people who need diapers for their children or milk or whatever...its becoming increasingly impossible to buy products that don't exploit other people. Don't get me wrong on a few things. First of all--most fair trade products don't run for much more than their exploiting competitors and I think that its worth the extra dollar or two to buy fair trade coffee and know that some coffee farmer received a fair amount of money and fair working conditions for his product. Secondly-I do not think that to be an Ethical consumer you should only buy things that are Fair Trade. There are other options-especially for the essentials that we can't buy from fair-trades most of the time- to be able to be an ethical consumer. Be sure to support your own economy and local businesses--buy fruits and veggies from your local farmers market rather than the supermarket-go to the local butcher to get your meat. Skip the nonessentials that are only available from companies who don't make efforts not to exploit...by buying american made goods you can at least be somewhat sure that the workers received a "fair" wage and working conditons and there are certain environmental laws that have to be up held. That doesn't say anything for overall ethics of these companies however I realize. The last thing I have to say is that I think is that I would love to see Huntington University have an Ethical Consumer Emphasis Week and I am going to see if I can make it happen. | 
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. Yipee. So God led me to an interesting Breakout session today...I definitely mean it when I say that God led me there too...I was intending to attend one that had apparently been canceled and I was unaware and so I ended up attending this one about the environment and good stewardship of what God is sharing with us (not gave us ownership of). It was beautiful to be reminded that we are not separate from creation and nature, but a part of it. I guess I just forget that God cares about everything he has created and loves all that He made.