Before you go out shopping, or go online -- to buy a bunch of "stuff" for everyone on your gift-giving list this holiday season, read this SOS Memo and share its contents with others.
Not only will you save money, but you just might help ignite the much-needed global "conversation" about the most important topic in the history of Homo sapiens -- the one about how we humans fit in with the rest of nature -- and what we must do to return to living in complete harmony with the natural world that gives us life.
Hardly anyone is talking about that topic now. So what does that mean for your children and for the billions of children that will be born in the next two or three decades around the world?
Sadly it means that, unless we start rapidly moving toward living in harmony with nature -- the lives of most of those billions of innocent kids are not going to be pretty. They are very likely going to be the complete opposite -- in every horrible way imaginable.
The first of three holiday photos in this memo, this one was taken 25 years ago at our lake cabin in Pennsylvania
As for the children of the world, let's make this the year that we really start helping them understand what gift-giving is all about and what it means to live in a manner that is acceptable to Mother Nature. A good step in the right direction toward that goal is...
Taking the new stuff out of gift-giving
Instead of giving more new "stuff" to people of all ages, consider turning over a new leaf this year and start giving them the gift of knowledge as it relates to the sustainability of the biosphere that gives us life.
We must help everyone become more cognizant of the absolute lunacy of the way this religion-focused holiday season has become just another bizarre, out-of-control element of our selfish, wasteful, harmful and grossly unsustainable way of living on this finite planet.
My former home at 34 Main in Stonington, Connecticut
Let's give ourselves something wonderful to remember about this 2020 holiday season -- that while in the midst of a global pandemic, we ushered in a new
GREEN world of gift-giving. On that topic, what follows below is some text from Chapter 10 of
our book, Outcry...
We've got to figure out a way to take the stuff out of gift-giving. Some people do a lot of re-gifting but then they worry about what the person who gave them the gift would say if she noticed that you never used, or wore, the item that she gave you -- or worse yet, that you'd thrown that precious gift away.
We've all got too many things to worry about already and we don't need to worry about silly things like that. That said, here's a list of gift-giving ideas that don't require the manufacturing of anything new:
- Take the gift recipients to dinner.
- Give them a personal item that you already own.
- Give them an e-subscription to the newspaper of their choice.
- Write, sing and record a song for them.
- Give services -- like hosting a party for them and their friends.
- Give them tickets to a new movie or play that you know they would enjoy.
- Take them to a concert.
- If you must give them stuff, give them consumable items that you know they like: things like fresh flowers or a bottle of their favorite wine.
- Give them e-books on topics and by authors that you know they would enjoy -- maybe even a copy
of Outcry
, where this text first appeared.
Top Ten Reasons for Giving E-Books this Year
As we take the stuff out of gift-giving, we also eliminate the entire gift-wrapping industry. According to research from Hallmark, Americans spend approximately $3.2 billion per year on wrapping paper -- a number that is projected to top $7B by 2025.
This insanity must stop. It doesn't really matter how many billions of dollars people like Jeff Bezos pledge to spend fighting climate change -- for as long as we continue to live outrageously unsustainable lives, we've got zero chance of slowing climate change enough to make much of a difference.
The Bottom Line. The primary purpose of our book, Outcry was to help spark the all important global conversation referenced earlier in this memo. We simply must start talking about the most important topic in the history of humanity.
None of this means that we can no longer permit ourselves to enjoy the holidays. Just the opposite. As we begin to better appreciate the relationship we can enjoy with the natural world, we'll discover much more joy in the simplicity of family fun -- like the day when I took this photo of my son's family about ten years ago in Connecticut:
In closing, some of you reading this SOS Memo may wonder what will happen to our economy if we all stopped giving each other "stuff" for Christmas, birthdays, and other annual events. You should not worry, because it may be necessary for our current economic system to fail -- so that we will be motivated to create a new way of keeping score -- one that will answer first to Mother Nature.
You can learn more about a "green" economy in our book. Hopefully, for some of your gift-giving needs, you may choose to share that book, Outcry with your loved ones this holiday season.
Season's Greetings from
PS: My first blog on the crucial topic of totally reinventing our civilization was posted 9-21-18 and heads the list below. It was all about GRATOLA, an acronym that refers to a "green region" corridor running from Atlanta to Los Angeles.
Since then, I have posted almost 100 additional pieces on that topic, including this one on 9-4-19 in which I introduced the GBN (Great Big Northern) -- one 25-mile wide corridor along the USA's northernmost border that would theoretically be capable of sustainably housing ALL 300+ million Americans in an area the size of Oregon.
