Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men.

What a wonderful day we had with both of our families! How blessed we all are to have all that we do. The presents were so much more than I could have asked for but the greatest feeling I received today was honestly from the time we spent with the people we love.

On to a different point of concern from the day that I felt compelled to share… 

Seeing kids cry and whine about particular toys they received or did not receive and seeing brand new toys being nearly destroyed with little to no concern and also seeing kids being so unappreciative for everything they had been giving… made me sick. 

It got me to thinking how selfishness and greed will most likely be our demise. I could rant because I have all night about what is going wrong with society, but I want to keep this short (mostly not to lose your interest in my political jargon). The world will be destroyed some day and it will be our fault. That is unless we wake up and start making a change. First in ourselves and then continue to encourage others to do the same. I would like to get all my facts together before posting a course of action I/we plan on taking to make a difference before it’s too late. We have, as a whole, become slaves to things that started out being mere conveniences in our daily lives and they now have become our dependencies.

Here are a couple of excerpts from some posts I have read that really make you go, “Hmm”. I encourage you to spend just a minute reading them, and I hope that in slight they give you a small perspective of the things we have been blinded by.

From a post entitled: “Will you create a world of consumers or contributors?” by Reid Bryant Kimball

“It’s not a future I want to see. I don’t like advertising, I think it pollutes the mind. “You are ugly. You are fat. You are hungry. You are friendless, hairless and depressed. What you need, we have. What you want, we sell. To be better, buy now.” Now couple that with achievement systems for being a “better” consumer and we have an already ill western society built up on consumerism now on a fast track to even greater self-destruction.

I went to a town hall recently and several members of the city government gave presentations, including the mayor and commissioner, as well as citizens. The topic was on peak oil, climate change and what it can do to our local food supply, the citizens and the planet as a whole. One point that really struck me was that for generations we’ve been brought up to be consumers. We consume food, clothing, information, services, products, art and raw materials of the earth. If we are to not only survive, but thrive in the coming generations, we need to adapt our way of living away from consumers to instead being contributors. We’ll need to become contributors of local community services (carpool organizer), food (grow your own), clothing (sew your own), healthcare (be your own doctor) and information (teach others what you know).”

And from www.opinionated.net:
                                                                                                                          ”But I think that a lot of it has to do with greed and short-sightedness. Making a national change like this would require sacrifice, on the part of ordinary Americans and corporations, the latter probably being more unwilling. Today’s buck is considered more important than tomorrow’s buck plus doing the right thing.

The oil companies would protest, the lobbyists would scream, the auto makers would howl, and the status quo would crumble. Such people and companies (who happen to have a lot of money and therefore influence) would come up with a million reasons to say these were bad ideas, ostensibly to “help” America. But they would be lies, because they are often greedy and short-sighted.

Sadly, this kind of thing applies on the micro level too. American companies also forsake long term (and often smarter) plans and sacrifice for short term gains. And we all suffer.”

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. It will take people willing to listen and act to make a real difference. I have faith. Can’t believe Christmas day is over, but during the year I would like to try to keep up the same spirit of joy and giving that is assumed to only be felt during this time. God bless you all, and Merry Christmas!

¡Pura Vida!