- social justice and everyday life -

i try not to shop at walmart. i believe, creedally, that walmart sucks.

i avoid the mall as often as possible. i don't like to eat at chain restaurants unless they're locally owned.

i never choose to go mcdonalds if they choice is completely mine.

but living out social justice is exhausting.

i'm never sure where i should draw the lines. on the one hand, I want to patronize local business, because i'm investing directly in the lives of my immediate neighbors. but on the other hand -- there's no sustained advantage in investing in my neighbors if they don't have the same commitments and ideals. if they don't aim their dollars locally -- then i'm really just paying them to make a decision i disagree with.

OR what about good practice chains. what if they pay fair wages, give good benefits and reinvest in the community more substantially than locals?

i just noticed that in the Utne Reader july-august issue there's a paragraph about somebody coming up with an idea for a "procott" movement -- the opposite of boycott -- whereby people strategically decide to consume in just / eco-friendly ways. YEAH! I'm all about it. They suggest monthly meetings (don't have time), AND a web page (I have time!)

"Representatives from [different groups] might meet quarterly in a council and perhaps develop a list of local retailers and service providers that members could be encouraged to buy from."

YEAH! but then there's no more information. This is something I care a lot about. I think that faithfulness with consumption / investment -- toward the ends of redemptive community / justice / shalom -- is one of the biggest blind spots of the church. But I don't have the time to be faithful to my "front burners" and develop a real sustained lifestyle of shalom. I should be able to do so in community...

so...this rant has been a long time coming. it's a backburner topic that sometimes just itches the underside of my skin so hard that i.... well, in this case, i itched. anyone want to join with me to create procott? anyone know who's already doing it?

Beautiful Moment

I’m riding home in the car after an afternoon at the everetts – waiting for our “open house” to be over and having lunch and having fun together – and I glance at this late twenties guy driving in the lane next to me.

This guy has a buzzed haircut, leather jacket, crappy buick century from 8 years ago.

You know the type, right? He’s probably listening to something hardcore, about to pull out a cig., disaffected and smarter than his station in his life betrays….

He’s got his armed sprawled over the top of the seat, probably to increase his feeling of angst and remove.

Until he pulls forward and he turns backwards to talk some nonsense to the toddler riding in the carseat behind him. His arm isn’t draped on the back of his seat, but is turned backward over the seat to hold the hand of this child in the back…

And I hadn’t been not liking him for all the stereotypical ways I interpreted his life, but suddenly I loved him for that gesture.

If you’ve done it – you know the painful joy of it – bending your shoulder backwards over a car seat is against the laws of nature (as is, probably, if you think about it, driving a car at all) but the joy of having a very little hand clutch your finger as if it were the only thing that could pull them through the rapidly passing future…

That’s a good thing.

It strikes me as a picture that gets at too much of how I think about my life as a parent right now. I’m careening ahead toward LIFE (!) and all of its demands / opportunities – and I’m hauling my kids forward into my life as an invitation to them. Come with me, be a part of the worlds I’m trying to build. But so often the journey forward and the vehicle we’re taking make it too hard to make meaningful connection with them. But when I do make that connection….well. there aren’t many good words to describe the depth and profoundness of that feeling.

Marcaus’ words about kids have been devastating prophecies that have been great words of truth (and pain) helping me see back into the core of what I hold true (connection / helping / holding / developing ) in the midst of the maelstrom which my life feels like right now. Thanks, man.

May moments of beauty interrupt your day today and leave you devastated and worshipping at the altars of hope and renewal and (always)

Peace~