I'm not writing advertisements for any of the following companies - but I do really like them. I'm using each of the described products and I like them enough to talk about them. If you like them too, great! If you have other ethically-made products you are excited about, please comment here or on Looking For Starfish's Facebook page and get the word out!
LUSH shampoo keeps my hair squeaky clean, pretty and shiny, and nice-but-not-too-nice-smelling. It comes in a bar, like a bar of soap, and has a great lather. All LUSH products are made by hand in Canada, and only contain fresh, organic ingredients. Most of their products come with no packaging whatsoever, but the packaging they do use is from post-consumer recycled, recyclable and biodegradable materials whenever possible, according to the LUSH website. Best of all, the company supports small farms and co-ops in Ghana, Morocco, Papau New Guinea, Vancouver and Colorado for its vanilla beans, rhassoul mud, shea butter, and seaweed. The nearest stores are in San Francisco, Emeryville, and Santa Clara, and their products are also available online.
Simple shoes are available at Nordstrom, several other local stores, and online. I have had one pair of Simple shoes for at least four years, and they look almost new. I just got a new pair of funky boots and they are very fabulous, I must say. The company website has a stated, clear human rights policy, and their reputation is excellent across the available internet information. They are in the process of becoming 100% sustainable - using a combination of all-natural, self-renewing, biodegradable, organic, and/or recycled materials.
I might love this product a little too much - Trader Joe's Fair Trade Swiss Dark Chocolate. Sweet, creamy, delicious, and, best of all, guilt-free in all the most important ways. They make a Fair Trade Swiss Milk Chocolate bar too, and it is just as dreamy. (I know. I've tried it.)
Hygiene products, footwear, chocolate. Sort of essential, right? Happy Shopping.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Slaves not to Greed, but to Christ
Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, and powers over this present darkness, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly places. Eph. 6:12
In the Spring 1955 edition of the Journal of Retailing, economist Victor Lebow wrote,
"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies. These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace."
Whether his attitude was encouraging and accepting of, or critical of this phenomenon of consumption is really irrelevant. Americans, from the leader of the nation to the least influential citizen, have been directly affected by the drive to consume. The professing Christian President George W. Bush encouraged Americans to go and shop after September 11, 2001, in an attempt to keep the economy from tanking. While this may seem to make economic sense, Americans have become nationally and personally culpable of the worship of a golden idol. We celebrate each holiday - shortened from Holy Day - by shopping. Each rite of passage, each birthday, each graduation, each celebration, includes shopping.
Americans have invited, welcomed, and enjoyed the spirit of Greed. Our politicians and biggest businesses have invited Greed to take over our country and become our protector since the 50's, and we've grown fatter and fatter under Its rule. We still believe in Its ability to save us. We teach our children to serve It. "Do well in school so you can make lots of money and have lots of nice things someday!" We listen to every lie It says and believe every promise It makes.
As with every evil spirit, Greed has been easy to invite and easy to welcome, but it is absolutely essential that we cast It out and invite the Lord to return to His rightful place. Greed has been a cruel tyrant. It has made us into slaves, and makes us into slave owners. "I need those shoes, I don't care where or how they were made!" We are all guilty. We all need to be rescued and liberated.
Thanks be to God, who sets the captives free! Thanks be to God for freeing us from our master Greed and offering Himself in return! Thanks be to our Savior Jesus for ransoming us with His blood! Thanks be to God Who is freeing the human slaves who make the products we thought we had to have! October is full of reminders that we live in a spiritual world. Each time you see a ghost decoration, pray for the increase of the Spirit of God. Pray with us for the liberation of our world, country, and selves. We live in the Kingdom of Heaven. We are Its citizens. Jesus has bought us from slavery and now gives us the privilege to fight for Him. Let's resist the invasion of the kingdom of darkness and live under the Rule of our glorious and precious King.
In the Spring 1955 edition of the Journal of Retailing, economist Victor Lebow wrote,
"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies. These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace."
Whether his attitude was encouraging and accepting of, or critical of this phenomenon of consumption is really irrelevant. Americans, from the leader of the nation to the least influential citizen, have been directly affected by the drive to consume. The professing Christian President George W. Bush encouraged Americans to go and shop after September 11, 2001, in an attempt to keep the economy from tanking. While this may seem to make economic sense, Americans have become nationally and personally culpable of the worship of a golden idol. We celebrate each holiday - shortened from Holy Day - by shopping. Each rite of passage, each birthday, each graduation, each celebration, includes shopping.
Americans have invited, welcomed, and enjoyed the spirit of Greed. Our politicians and biggest businesses have invited Greed to take over our country and become our protector since the 50's, and we've grown fatter and fatter under Its rule. We still believe in Its ability to save us. We teach our children to serve It. "Do well in school so you can make lots of money and have lots of nice things someday!" We listen to every lie It says and believe every promise It makes.
As with every evil spirit, Greed has been easy to invite and easy to welcome, but it is absolutely essential that we cast It out and invite the Lord to return to His rightful place. Greed has been a cruel tyrant. It has made us into slaves, and makes us into slave owners. "I need those shoes, I don't care where or how they were made!" We are all guilty. We all need to be rescued and liberated.
Thanks be to God, who sets the captives free! Thanks be to God for freeing us from our master Greed and offering Himself in return! Thanks be to our Savior Jesus for ransoming us with His blood! Thanks be to God Who is freeing the human slaves who make the products we thought we had to have! October is full of reminders that we live in a spiritual world. Each time you see a ghost decoration, pray for the increase of the Spirit of God. Pray with us for the liberation of our world, country, and selves. We live in the Kingdom of Heaven. We are Its citizens. Jesus has bought us from slavery and now gives us the privilege to fight for Him. Let's resist the invasion of the kingdom of darkness and live under the Rule of our glorious and precious King.
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