Origin: Not so green desire for convenience and disposability.
How long kept: Uh, 6-7 years?
Why kept: Might Be Useful.
Destination: Textile recycling.
Confession: Burned by the loss of an expensive glove a few years back, I got a bunch of these in a package at Target for a couple of dollars, when I was thinking a bit less about the sustainability of this sort of thing.
A couple of years ago, I made a stuffed spider toy for one of my nephews out of a couple of these. This did enter my thought process momentarily (Good Crafting Intentions (Almost) Gone Bad) before I decided to let these go.
Confession, part deux: I had a Moment in the Brooklyn Target earlier this summer, when I made a last minute purchase of something it turned out I didn't need. (Stay tuned.) For a second, all of the merchandise and shoppers appeared to me as a flickering sea of human suffering -- plastic crap and lost American jobs. (We basically have no textile industry any more. Is this good?)
I'm not usually such a downer. (Sorry about that.) But I do want to make better choices in what I decide to acquire and keep.
how cute is this l'il guy!
ReplyDelete(plastic crap and lost American jobs. That's Capitalism's coda).
I actually don't disagree with capitalism. It's like yoga...it depends on who's purveying it, and how we are practicing it.
ReplyDeleteWith a systems view, where we make decisions with our neighbors in mind, it can be an engine of great growth and an amazing use for creativity. (It's a lever for development of women's rights in many parts of the developing world.)
The problem, in my mind, is what happens when we don't give enough consideration to what happens to our neighbor. Big Box stores opening in Manhattan and rural America, ack. So many small businesses have been affected...so that we can pay less. (And is the quality better? As a fellow vintage clothing aficionado, I know that we align on that one.)
It goes back to good old George Bailey, in my mind, when he stopped the run on the building and loan by reminding people that their money was invested in their neighbors' homes.
I know that's just a movie. And an old one at that. But it's capitalism without a sense of community, that's the thing that is harmful. In my view.
But I digress. A bit. The disposable gloves I bought at Tar-jay? I know that I didn't put some Bedford Falls glove maker out of business. Directly, at least.
Sigh.