Thoughtful Education

There are times when we may feel that the whole world has landed in a hand-basket and it's headed . . . south. The darkest of those times also may make us feel that we're powerless to do anything about it. Of course, that's wrong.

Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Those of you who read this blog are part of that thoughtful group, a group which has gathered a sizable number of members over the years and continues to grow as we learn more about sustainable living.

For most of us, the first step we take as members of this group is unloading all the excess stuff we've acquired that we now realize we don't need. Recently there was an article in Real Simple online that provided a number of basic suggestions for places to donate used goods; it's worth a look in case you're not familiar with a few of the charities mentioned. I'm working on my own 365 Item Toss uncluttering challenge, so about once a week things get hauled away to be donated or trashed.

But sometimes cash is king, as they say on Wall Street (fewer people are left there to say much of anything now). And sometimes very little cash is all that's required to get very important things accomplished.

I'm particularly concerned about the horrible state of our school systems. Here in California, the situation is positively dire, but I know there are schools throughout our country that are insufficiently staffed and have few or no resources for students. This is ridiculous, in my mind. But in addition to us voting out the people who put such a low priority on education, there are many charities that give us an opportunity to help teachers and kids directly with small donations. Here are just a few:

Donors Choose

RAFT - Resource Area for Teaching

Adopt A Classroom

If you want to reach out internationally, investigate these charities:

One Laptop Per Child

The National Christina Foundation

Please click on these links to see what wonderful work these groups are doing. There are many other worthwhile organizations devoted to education, some undoubtedly in your local area.

We need well-educated children who will grow up understanding how to keep their life priorities straight, how to live in a global society, how to think creatively, how to be thoughtful consumers.

Then, in the future, maybe the world won't have to take another ride in the ol' hand-basket.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Service

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was first observed as a federal holiday in 1986. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law the King Holiday and Service Act, challenging Americans to transform the day into one of citizen action and volunteer service in honor of Dr. King. The results are annual service activities across the nation.

If you’d like to find out what’s going on in your community or around the country, you can sign on to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service website which has over 11,400 projects registered. The slogan for the day is, “Make it a day on, not a day off.”

Even if you can’t sign up for a volunteer project in your neighborhood, there is one charitable thing that I know you can do: spend the day packing up your unnecessary clothes, dishes, toys and everything else you can get your hands on and take it all to your local charity shop a.s.a.p. There’s not much good economic news out there and, as I’ve discussed in the past, if you have any extra stuff around your home, this is definitely the time to let it go. Plenty of people who have never done so before are now turning to charities for help, so the demand for goods is high.

I’ve started my own weekend purge of extra stuff in order to donate as an act of service and to stay on track to complete my 365 Item Toss Challenge. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here.) I’ve gathered up everything from extra office supplies to a few old videotapes to a bunch of perfectly serviceable old clothing to more candle holders than anyone should own -- 43 items so far and there will be more to add tomorrow. I’ll post the entire list at the end of the year, but I already know that I am not going to miss a single thing that I’m giving away and this is from a household that has pared down quite efficiently over the last few years. If you take a look around your home, I’ll bet that you’ll find some opportunities to be charitable, too. And you’ll reap the rewards of a less cluttered home.

The holiday also prompted me to wonder what opportunities for service on a larger scale are available to us. Fortunately, some programs that started back in the sixties have expanded the work they do. If you’d like to accept the challenge that President-elect Obama has put forth to make service a part of our daily lives, check out the Corporation for National Community Service to learn more about AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA, SeniorCorps, other programs and special initiatives. There are many other charities that could use your help, too. Scroll down the blog to take a look at the list I’ve posted on the right side of the page. You probably have favorite charities of your own that might appreciate some volunteer help.

I’m hopeful that soon we’ll see a significant change in the way we view ourselves in this society. We’re not just consumers, as advertisers would like us to believe; we are citizens, with all the benefits and responsibilities that entails.

So, if you’re struggling to make ends meet or feel like you’re on a treadmill without a moment to catch your breath, it’s okay to ask for and accept help. The whole point of a society is that we’re all in it together. Sometimes the most you can give is a smile to the grocery clerk or a hug to your kids.

But if you’re among the fortunate, and are honest with yourself, you'll agree that there’s enough to go around for everyone. Together, we can help re-write the lyrics to that famous old Billie Holiday song, “God Bless the Child.” Ms. Holiday and her partner, Arthur Hertzog, Jr., wrote, “Them that’s got shall get.” Let’s change that to, “Them that’s got shall give.”

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

An Unclutterer Challenge: The 365 Item Toss

It's the dawn of a new year and a new opportunity for all of us to become more thoughtful about our consumer habits. The collapsing economy has made things look pretty bleak, so most of us are probably doing a pretty fair job of cutting back on unnecessary spending. However, there's a tendency during times of economic insecurity to want to hold on to stuff we already own, even if much of it is clutter. What if we need it someday? How can we sell it now when we won't get the best price for it? If we'd just fix it up a little bit, it would be perfectly fine to use.

That's faulty thinking. Hanging on to clutter will do nothing to improve our lives, but if we let it go, not only will we benefit, but other people who need the usable stuff will benefit, too. I wrote a post six months ago called Embracing Charity in Tough Economic Times in which I talked about the importance of letting go of unnecessary things even when times are difficult. Take a look if you'd like a little boost for your motivation.

Also six months ago, Dave Bruno started his 100 Thing Challenge on his blog to see just how much less he could live with -- in his case cutting back to 100 things. He has a few special rules that give him a little flexibility (for example, underwear and socks don't count, nor do shared family items like the dining room table), but the overall idea is to simplify his life to the point that he can live comfortably with a minimum amount of stuff.

In spite of its enormous appeal to me, cutting back to 100 things seems pretty daunting at this time in my life. So I've come up with an alternative that's less drastic: I'm going to challenge myself to dispose of 365 things over the course of the next year. Obviously, that's one thing a day, although I'll bag up a bunch of stuff to donate at one time, so I won't be driving to my local charity drop-off every single day. I'll have a few "rules," too:

1. General trash doesn't count. The only things that count are individual items that are tossed (something useless that's been sitting around for awhile due to my inertia), or items that are donated or sold.

2. Handing things off to friends or relatives counts only if they really want the items or the items belonged to them and were left here.

3. Following Dave's lead, if I do buy something new, I'll throw away the old thing first.

4. I will count as one item tossed the entire box of old tax papers I will be able to shred once this year's taxes are filed. All the effort involved in disposing of that much paper should be worth something. These are the only papers I will count because I would otherwise reach 365 Things Tossed in a couple hours of paper purging.

5. I may need to modify or add to these rules as I get the process started, but I vow not to violate the spirit of the challenge.

I'll mention my progress occasionally in my usual blog posts on various consumer issues throughout this year. If any of you would like to join me in this challenge, please do so. If you feel like commenting on your progress, I'd enjoy hearing about it.

And, to close with something for you to ponder further, here's a bit of dialogue from Garrison Keillor's 2007 book, Pontoon, set, of course, in Lake Wobegon, featuring a feisty character named Evelyn talking to her daughter, Barbara, whom she didn't want to burden after her death:

"When I die," Evelyn told her, "I want you to be able to sweep out the place, take the sheets off the bed and the clothes out of the closet, clean out the medicine chest, and hang out a For Sale sign. Two hours and you'll be rid of me. I'm a pilgrim. I travel light."

When you get down to the basics, we're all pilgrims. So, here's to a simpler, saner year for all of us as we work toward travelling as lightly as we can!

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob