Comments on: it’s free

by: bev

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:39:08 +0000

fred - a hospital, eh? I kind of hate to ask what the “enormous something” was that the guys were carrying.
-
Cathy - It seems to me that our consumer society is becoming overloaded with “stuff”. Makes me think of that George Carlin monologue about “stuff” which contains many truths. Over time, I’ve begun to think of belongings as being a bit like anchors — and I don’t necessarily mean that in a positive sense. There’s a lot to be said about keeping things simple. Also in sharing things like tools and less often used items, which was a very common thing in farming communities at one time.

by: Cathy

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:24:28 +0000

My sister-in-law and I toured Amish country today. We came away feeling burdened by our stuff. Martin houses are a regular feature in their yards. We sat outside one of their homes attached to a bakery and listened and watched the birds coming and going. Who needs a Mc Mansion when beauty like that is free. I don’t think the Amish have trash collection. In all the years I’ve driven through their farms - I’ve only observed spare tidiness and have yet to see signs of discarded ’stuff’.
Your sunset picture is lovely. And, as you say - free.

by: fred

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 02:43:09 +0000

“The things we throw away in Canada, eh?” — overheard of two guys carrying an enormous something out of the Queen Charlottes Hospital in 1988 or 1989.

by: bev

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 01:16:29 +0000

threecollie - It sure was a great sunset - we seem to be having some beautiful ones lately.
-
Dave - I think that’s a great idea to have a National Free——— Day (how weird that they are so protective of the name!). I do think people might get into the idea of a “giveaway day” rather than a staying-away-from-the-store day. I like the idea of giving stuff away to someone who might find a cool new use for it.

by: Dave

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:12:03 +0000

I had this idea last year to start a movement to re-name Buy Nothing Day (the Friday after Thanksgiving in the U.S.), National Freecycle Day. Unfortunately, it seems that the organizers of the Freecycle network are very zealous about brand-name protection, believe it or not, so i dropped the idea. Still, it’s so much better to push the idea of a gift economy than to stress NOT doing evil consumerist things. A conservation economy would actually be much more rewarding, I think: it would bring people together instead of atomizing them, as the consumer econmy does. Or so I’d like to believe.