So I went to my first ever baby birthday since I've become an adult...you just don't get invited to baby birthdays after a certain age unless a friend/sister/cousin has a baby having a birthday...in this case, I'm the baby's nanny. I throughly enjoyed the party...watching a one-yr old smash cake in the face of his favorite two-yr old friend was priceless...holding Jack on the kiddy merry-go-round and watching him laugh and laugh was also priceless.
But the presents where not priceless...in fact, some of the presents this little one-yr old recieved probably cost quite a bit. He got a baby Elmo chair, a singing Elmo balloon, a little dump truck he can ride on, board puzzles, books, stuffed toys, three different fire trucks, a metal top that whistles when it spins. And Jack didn't really want any of it; it was interesting to me to hear the adults saying things like "by this Christmas, he'll know what presents are all about," and "at least his friend Vega (the two-yr old,) gets the whole present thing." I should add that Vega was opening all of Jack's presents for him while Jack kept trying to run away. All that Jack was interested in was eating the paper.
Anyway, I just really realized how much consumerism is taught...Jack will gradually begin to understand the value of presents because this is a lesson we reinforce constantly in our culture; at birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's Day, graduations, baby showers, weddings, wedding showers, going off to college, Secretary's Day, Boss Apprieciation Day, Easter, Kwanza, Hanukkah, anniversaries of all sorts, not to mention presents we buy for our loved ones when we go on vacation, and probably many other sundry occastions that I'm forgetting about. My point is, Jack will have plenty of opportunity to "get the whole present thing."
We start teaching the rabid consumerism of our culture before a child is even one-yr old. If we want to turn our culture around, curb global warming, place more emphasis on family rather then things, get rid of POPs (persistant organic pollunts,) in breastmilk, cool the oceans, and so forth, then we need to start with the very youngest members of our culture; we need to be more conservative at birthdays, Christmas and all the rest. For ideas of great presents to make at home, check out www.adbusters.org.
Love ya,
Carrot
Happy Istar! (Istar is the Babalonian goddess of fertility.)
Recently i was scanning through Treehugger.com and a groovy ad on the side of the webpage captured my attention. The link lead me to (obviously i visited the site) http://www.simpleshoes.com/womenLanding.aspx?g=Women and i was thrust into a cyberspace of "sustainable shoes".
I urged myself to RESIST, to avoid the neat appeal. It was difficult, and I think you're right... the first birthday example shows that our environment grabs us by throat. It says, you want that Walmart toy, right? Ok, just don't lick. It tells us to hold our nose at malpractice, unethical business and let go of our dough. Good post man.
Every organism's heartbeat holds a universe of beauty at http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/green-underbelly
that Jack's family are some of the best parents I've ever met; I am not blaming them in the least for the conditions of our planet or our culture; rather, our overall culture overwhelms us and makes it impossible to do anything but be part of the whole thing.
Love to all,
Carrot