Trade As One

Our friends over at Willow Creek North Shore had some Fair Trade fun last night at their annual Trunk or Treat celebration. Trunk or Treat, for those of you who haven’t had the good fortune of attending one, is a spin on trick or treating but instead of knocking on doors or ringing doorbells, you just go car to car (trunks to be exact) and get your candy! So, we were excited to learn that Jackie Herron, the Compassion & Justice Director at WCNS was taking her “trunk” Fair Trade. As part of a larger Fair Trade initiative, she and her team kicked off the holiday season by choosing to gear their trunk to adults, not kids and educating them about the realities of the cocoa industry. They attached a small piece of Fair Trade chocolate to a printed piece taking about Fair Trade and specifically how the cocoa industry has historically used child labor and exploited farmers. They challenged people to make a difference by choosing to purchase Fair Trade chocolate from now on.

The attendees of Willow Creek North Shore will have the opportunity to purchase chocolate and other goods on November 22 at their Fair Trade Christmas Boutique. Following that, a Trading Post will launch which will allow people to purchase everyday items on an ongoing basis at their church. We love seeing communities incorporate Fair Trade into their DNA, and we love Jackie and her team!

Bart Garrett is the founding pastor of Christ Church Berkeley. He’s a dear friend of ours, and a while back we sat down and talked about how Fair Trade has affected the way in which his family celebrates the holidays. We love his idea of using gifts as a means to introduce values of justice and fairness to his children. Take a look, and please feel free to share with us in the comments the way in which your family celebrates, and if/how Fair Trade can play a role.

Every year, as we approach Christmas, the consumerism that drives our culture loses all subtlety. Companies approach the end of the calendar year desperate to meet revenue expectations and they create marketing campaigns that play on our fears and insecurities, with the simple objective of driving more purchasing.

In this post, I’ll focus on a few of the effects that this consumption fest has on us. In a couple of days, I’ll suggest something of an antidote, and then late this week (or maybe early next week), I’ll write on some practical suggestions that follow as a result of that thinking. 

So what does consumerism do to us?

•      We become fearful – fearful of losing, of falling behind, of failing compared to others, of not being as successful as we should be, of missing out on experiences and privileges that we think we deserve. We live with an unnamed anxiety that gnaws at us, that makes us restless, dissatisfied, fearful people. That guy drives a better car – he must be better than me in meetings. He probably went to a better school. She always knows what to wear. I bet she is liked by more people than I am. Her children are going to be more successful than mine. They never seem overwhelmed - my life is not as together as theirs is.

•      It reduces me to being nothing more than a collection of impulses –  the satisfaction of acquisition, the thrill of winning, the temporal and sensual satiation of cravings. After a lifetime chasing these things, you will hear people say in a moment of weakness - Is this really all there is? We were not created to be simply a complex collection of temporal impulses. There is violence done to the human soul when it is reduced to that.

•      The third side-effect of the consumerist culture is that it enslaves me to devote more of my energies to buying things and less on what is important, but it makes it feel like I have no choice. We gear our finances up and defer the payments to the future. This mountain of debt enslaves us to a degree of busy-ness and frantic activity that robs us of rest, of joy, of peace and wonder, and I feel powerless to do anything about it.

•      And finally, by taking more than I should from the world, I become an instrument of its abuse. Piles of acquired nonsense get purchased, used a couple of times and then discarded. We even pay to store all this stuff somewhere other than our homes. Guess how much stuff bought in America is still in use six months later? 1%. ONE PERCENT*. Our participation in this system can cause us a deep sense of grief. I have left enormous shopping malls with a grief that almost causes me to weep at how wrong we have got it.
Check back in later this week for a more hopeful post. Although consumerism is all-pervasive, it’s antidote lies in the quiet power of gratitude and generosity.

*More details here

As some of you may already know, we released our video “Trade as One – Just One” this week (we’re posting it here just in case you haven’t seen it yet). The response has been humbling. It’s been wonderful to see Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube going nuts. As a team, we get excited about the increasing views on YouTube , because we know that each view represents one more person who just might approach Christmas a bit differently this year.

So if you haven’t seen it, watch it here. If you have, share it on Facebook/Twitter/email it to your friends!

Stay tuned for more Just One posts this week about “Just One Cards,” how churches and faith communities are getting involved, videos from Just One Churches, and more.

The following is an excerpt from the newsletter we just sent out. To subscribe to the newsletter, enter your email in the box to the upper right of this screen. Thanks!

Hope in Kenya
Trade as One deliberately partners with brave and innovative organizations doing powerful work fighting poverty, slavery and HIV/AIDS, who produce products that we in America would be proud to own. Beacon of Hope, our partner in Kenya, fits that description perfectly. Their amazing rugs tell stories of hope restored, and allow your home to be a part of those stories. Read below for more about their work, and make sure to check out the front page of our site for a link to our brand new video!

Beacon of Hope
HIV/AIDS continues to ravage Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to the disease itself, the stigma surrounding it often adds fear and isolation to the list of challenges faced by those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Into this desperation, Beacon of Hope brings dignity, stability, and much needed income to women in the Kware slum outside Nairobi, Kenya. These women are not only fighting the disease, but attempting to support their families as well. Beacon of Hope provide job training, health care, and education for these women and their families, and provide them the tools they need to acquire life-sustaining ARV medicines. We’re incredibly proud to be a part of their story, and several members of the Trade as One team have their rugs adorning our homes. Nathan George, our founder, has a Beacon of Hope rug at his bedside so that his first step of the day reminds him of our partners in Kenya. To see all of the rugs, or to read more of their story, click here.