UnStuffing The Holiday Turkey

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The quote above is from a marketing guru of the Eisenhour era–a time that perhaps marks the beginning of our acquiescence to the addiction of stuff. We are all complicit in the idolatry of our times: the worship of goods, the more in excess of need the better.

There are many good reasons to change–now. In twenty minutes, the Story of Stuff does a fine job of laying on the table the sources of the problem (some obvious, some invisible or simply ignored) and solutions to end our illusion of infinite material conversion of the planet into our precious and largely un-necessary stuff.

You can watch online, or download the 50 MB file. I would recommend this for families, schools, churches and organizations as a way of focusing on actions that will allow us to take less and give more back to the earth in 2008. We simply must.

** 99% of the STUFF that goes through the system of production and distribution to reach consumers is trashed within six months. Is this the best we can do?

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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