<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Umbra on holiday shopping]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by kayakpatty http://www.grist.org/article/the-click-and-the-dread/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:43:19 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/the-click-and-the-dread/1 What about shopping locally?

I do a lot of shopping online for things I cannot find locally and I am glad to find out that it's generally good for the environment BUT don't forget about your local shops. A lot of cities have wonderful shopping areas to which you can walk, bus, or bike where you will find unusual, locally made items. You will also avoid the craziness of the mall.

]]> What about shopping locally?

I do a lot of shopping online for things I cannot find locally and I am glad to find out that it's generally good for the environment BUT don't forget about your local shops. A lot of cities have wonderful shopping areas to which you can walk, bus, or bike where you will find unusual, locally made items. You will also avoid the craziness of the mall.

]]> Comment #2 by texasjenny http://www.grist.org/article/the-click-and-the-dread/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:23:07 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/the-click-and-the-dread/2 Food, food, food

Food is a great gift because it's useful (ya gotta eat!), it gets consumed (reducing waste) and you don't have to make a special trip to buy it (just get it when you are doing your regular grocery shopping).

]]> Food, food, food

Food is a great gift because it's useful (ya gotta eat!), it gets consumed (reducing waste) and you don't have to make a special trip to buy it (just get it when you are doing your regular grocery shopping).

]]> Comment #3 by wdisney http://www.grist.org/article/the-click-and-the-dread/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:07:21 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/the-click-and-the-dread/3 Holiday Gifts

The "Holiday" of Christmas has been historically the retail boon for our post industrial economy. It has not always been so. In decades past it was a celebration of a free gift from God of a Savior who loves us, and brought a way of life that leads to peace. The gift was celebrated with "Mass" or a Holy congregation, hence CHRIST MASS. Lore developed many ways to show "The GIFT" in physical forms and tangible objects mostly to help Children to understand "The Gift". The tradition came to overwhelm the truth.
The celebration has been plagued with two great transitions, the spiritual into the physical and faith to tradition, which combined to give us the celebration of "pseudo sanctified consumerism" and a shift away from faith in the grace of the Divine.
 If we look back to the origin of the story in Luke chapter two we see "The gift" is referred to as Immanuel...that is "God with us", or Jesus. Understanding this should initiate a shift to "Be with" people to celebrate a divine gift instead of sending a less than complete representation of our esteem for the recipient.
So, instead of buying some plastic prepackaged china made non durable good...bake some healthy bread or organic sweets and share the afternoon drinking fair trade coffee with someone whom your heart sees as valuable. Show them they are important by spending TIME with them. If that would happen humanity may actually increase in Peace, the amount of broken plastic that ends up in the land fill would be reduced. Be creative. Give a gift of a RELATIONAL experience, which is a gift.
BE THE CHANGE.



]]> Holiday Gifts

The "Holiday" of Christmas has been historically the retail boon for our post industrial economy. It has not always been so. In decades past it was a celebration of a free gift from God of a Savior who loves us, and brought a way of life that leads to peace. The gift was celebrated with "Mass" or a Holy congregation, hence CHRIST MASS. Lore developed many ways to show "The GIFT" in physical forms and tangible objects mostly to help Children to understand "The Gift". The tradition came to overwhelm the truth.
The celebration has been plagued with two great transitions, the spiritual into the physical and faith to tradition, which combined to give us the celebration of "pseudo sanctified consumerism" and a shift away from faith in the grace of the Divine.
 If we look back to the origin of the story in Luke chapter two we see "The gift" is referred to as Immanuel...that is "God with us", or Jesus. Understanding this should initiate a shift to "Be with" people to celebrate a divine gift instead of sending a less than complete representation of our esteem for the recipient.
So, instead of buying some plastic prepackaged china made non durable good...bake some healthy bread or organic sweets and share the afternoon drinking fair trade coffee with someone whom your heart sees as valuable. Show them they are important by spending TIME with them. If that would happen humanity may actually increase in Peace, the amount of broken plastic that ends up in the land fill would be reduced. Be creative. Give a gift of a RELATIONAL experience, which is a gift.
BE THE CHANGE.



]]> Comment #4 by Angelsnecropolis http://www.grist.org/article/the-click-and-the-dread/ Sun, 07 Dec 2008 08:48:48 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/the-click-and-the-dread/4 Celebrate the people, not the holiday...

I'm against most holiday celebrations because they've become a perversion of mass consumerism with no real personal meaning. They tell you Thanksgiving & Christmas is about being with family and therefore is special. But what makes it special to the individual? Cannot any other day of the year have just as much meaning? Why does our society see it fit to reserve just these handful of days as special and ignore the other days?

If I buy a gift for someone it's because that person is special to me and has nothing to do with the day I give the gift.

IMO, the celebration should be for the people and their personal meaning to us and not what day of the year it is. People shouldn't use holidays as excuses to give gifts or thanks while neglectig the other 360 something days you may or may not celebrate.

]]> Celebrate the people, not the holiday...

I'm against most holiday celebrations because they've become a perversion of mass consumerism with no real personal meaning. They tell you Thanksgiving & Christmas is about being with family and therefore is special. But what makes it special to the individual? Cannot any other day of the year have just as much meaning? Why does our society see it fit to reserve just these handful of days as special and ignore the other days?

If I buy a gift for someone it's because that person is special to me and has nothing to do with the day I give the gift.

IMO, the celebration should be for the people and their personal meaning to us and not what day of the year it is. People shouldn't use holidays as excuses to give gifts or thanks while neglectig the other 360 something days you may or may not celebrate.

]]>