My friend the grinch

Buy Nothing Day is just around the corner. I went out to Robson Square last year and stood in the rain for a while and met some interesting people. Eventually we caved in and bought some beer, but for the most part, we were pretty good. Believe me, it is not as easy as you would think to buy nothing in the city.

I've stumbled across the next step (and this is probably old news to most of you).
Buy Nothing Christmas

Strangely enough, an old friend of mine, Nicholas Klassen is behind this endeavour. I figure he'll stumble across this posting eventually what with the wonders of google, so welcome to Enlightening Ideas, Nick. I hope you'll have some rants and raves.

Now, I am not much of a materialistic person myself. After spending over three years drifting around with a backpack and hitchhiking across Europe, Africa, Canada, the US and parts of Mexico, I can tell you a bit of a mantra I had - never own more than you can carry. Now that I have a car, this means I can have a few more things - but I'd bet I can still carry all my clothes - and that's about all I've got. People with vans and busses have it made.

I've worked at a lot of moving companies during my travels, and it always blew my mind that people had to hire other people to move them from place to place, like some kind of bloated whale washed up on a beach.

Ay, we live in materialistic times.

I've heard that fashion drives consumerism more than anything, and it is probably true, but with the Vintage movement still kicking at least all the old clothes aren't ending up in landfills. And all of that cotton production isn't doing too many wonders for the environment. Yes, hemp would make more sense, and yes it puts more CO2 back into the environment than rainforests, and yes most packaging is made from oil, and the landfills are filling up with more and more junk everyday, yes, yes, yes, I know, I know, I know - but nothing for Christmas?? Hmm. It seems almost cruel.