WALL*E

In a word…..BRILLIANT. Probably the best socio-political commentary I have seen that wasn’t a documentary.

The Stranger’s review:

Incredible. Not only is WALL•E the best Pixar movie yet (an immodest claim, I realize, though I can’t imagine you’d disagree), but its entire plot is devoted to freaking its audience out about consumer culture. At first, this crusade seems admirably self-destructive: It’s as though a movie studio has declared war on its own merchandising. But don’t get too excited. The notion that humankind will be driven off the planet because there’s too much trash is a quaint, almost nostalgic take on environmentalism.

….But all this seems pathologically cynical when you consider the film itself, a wonderfully insane and involving love story. WALL•E is a little trash compactor charged with packing and stacking the waste that covers the face of the desolate, depopulated Earth…..Trigger-happy and shiny, EVE is the prettiest thing WALL•E has ever seen. Soon he’s patting his pet beetle on the head and hitching a ride to EVE’s home on Axiom, a gigantic cruise ship where all the obese, ignorant humans have retreated to reproduce in a consumerist haze while they wait for their planet to become habitable again.

The fact that the President of the U.S. also happens to be the CEO of the world’s largest corporation? Genius, plain genius. And how PIXAR  managed to make a trash compactor have such heart and soul….I have no idea. Go see it!

21

It’s here. It wasn’t long awaited, really. I think I’m one of the more un-excited new 21 year olds, and that’s just fine. An amazing Matt Wertz concert and board games at a pub was a perfect night. Thanks roommates–and Blake and Missa–for rearranging your schedules to be with me

Anyhow, perhaps I should be more reflective than I currently feel, but in all reality it’s been a good year, feeling more at home in Seattle the longer I’m here, and school is still school.

I am more blessed than I can comprehend. Thank you, (all 3 of you who read this, I think)–for journeying with me this past year, supporting me and encouraging me in my crazy endeavors. I am truly grateful.

Here’s to heading for 22…..

Love, grace, and peace to you.

kate

springtime and shows

I very rarely will go see movies in the theatre, but one thing I do really enjoy are going to shows. I’m no music expert, but out of my rotating favorites list of artists, quite a few are coming to Seattle this month. Which will presumably leave me broke but very happy nonetheless.

Last week Brandon Heath was at SPU, and he’s been a longtime favortite….though he’s signed with a label now and gone a little on the CCM-heavy side for my taste, it was still a pretty sweet show.

Last night, Tyrone Wells played at Nectar Lounge. I had been slightly heartbroken because the last time he was in Seattle (playing at Q cafe, no less), I was a ways out of town (in Uganda.) So, my first time seeing him live, something like Blake’s 4th time, but a GREAT show….here is a sweet medley that he played:

To top it off, Matt Wertz, who might hold the title of my favorite live performer decided to play at the Triple Door next week. Happy Birthday to me. Here he is covering MJ:

McAid

I just wrote a whole entry about this picture, and then realized it was nothing but my endless ranting. So, here is a picture. Decode it for yourself…..

Rob Bell on “Emerging Church”

Interesting stuff….

the story of (my) stuff

I was happily surprised when Quest showed a clip of a documentary called The Story of Stuff this week. I’d seen it awhile ago and it does have a good message–especially when it comes to describing the formation of the American Consumer as our primary identities. As much as I would like to think that I somehow consume better because I avoid Wal-Mart, Target, Gap, Old Navy….the list goes on….the reality is that I probably consume a normal amount for the average American. And according to the Ecological Footprint Quiz, it’d take 3.8 planets to support my current lifestyle.

What gets me is this: Clearly, there are a disproportionate amount of resources allocated to us here in the states. Therefore, it seems that we were not intended to live with as much shit stuff as we are constantly taught to believe we need and/or are entitled to. So the question then becomes: is it possible (for me) to live (in Seattle) without using more resources than the world has available for one person?

Seeking simplicity can be a hard and painful process within a culture that continually teaches us to want more and convinces us (me) that if we just had THAT car, THAT toy, THAT shirt, THOSE shoes….somehow, we’d be filled. And to me, there is so much Christian cliche in all the things we say about enjoying our stuff, how God made us to enjoy this that and whatever and that we shouldn’t feel bad for what we have and all the blessings(in terms of material things) he’s given us and blah blah blah…..

Are we sure about that? Did He really intend for us to be celebrating His son’s birth by buying a bunch of crap for each other? How would Jesus feel about the size of my closet? Or the 4 pairs of black heels that I justify because 3 of them are from a thrift store? Or the fact that I could stop grocery shopping for WEEKS and still have enough to eat because I have that big of a food pantry?

In her song “World on Fire,” Sarah McLachlan says it perfectly:

The more we take, the less we become

Fortune of one man means less for some

I came across another interesting article today that linked up the issue of faith and consumerism:

Ethical consumerism sometimes feels like the new Catholicism — a system for generating new sins, new guilt. Is that fair-trade coffee you’re drinking? Have you sorted your trash for recycling? Offset the carbon released by your flight?

So, in the spirit of accountability, here are my measly goals for the next while:

1. make better use of my re-useable coffee mug. no more convenient paper coffee cups. so if you catch me with one……smack me upside the head. you have permission.

2. walk and bus more. as much as my car is handy…..I don’t need to use it as much as I do.

3. less meat: not that I eat a ton as it is, but I would definitely consider myself a lazy vegetarian. It took conscious effort last week to make my Trader Joe’s run entirely veggie…

4. less heat: i really, really like my electrical heater. perhaps a little too much. I could always put on more layers, blankets, etc before I resort to it. plus, it’s (supposed to be) spring.

5. cleaning out my bedroom. yes, I live in a small basement, but my closet (and car trunk) are happy homes to all the stuff I feel I need but never use. Time to find new homes, crap.

So, there it is folks. I’m pretty sure I’ll never actually be at peace with my level of consumption, but small steps are something, at least. Up next: the pursuit of buying locally. stay tuned……..

African Food Crisis

For reasons that are still being gathered and analyzed, food prices for basic necessities such as rice, maize, and beans have, in some places, nearly doubled in recent months. BBC Article.

I would guess that it is pretty well linked to the instability in Kenya and Zimbabwe, as well as the drought crises in Australia that has led to a sharp decline in the export of wheat (who knew that wheat, NOT oil, has risen the most dramatically in price in the past year?….not me.)

On a somewhat personal level, this translates into (and how I originally found out about the crises)…kids in Uganda not able to eat as many meals per day….sigh.

So, as much as we all whine about oil prices, at least we have the ability to go into the grocery store and purchase everything we need, and most of us–more than we need, and not have to worry about where our next meal comes from.

exciting things at Tusubira

 Tusubira is now supporting STAO in the direct care of 67 children orphaned by AIDS.

check out what we’re up to….

 www.wehavehope.org 

His Holiness via E-ticket

So, I just reserved an e-ticket to attend His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s speaking event at UW in April.

An e-ticket….. to see one of the world’s most famous, influential, religious figures of all time…..with an e-ticket. Like you would get for a rock concert. Or a sporting event.

Is it just me, or is something about that very, very strange….

…..on consumption

they make me think….

Too much of the world’s happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn’t have to be that way… But we have a greed problem: if I don’t grab mine while I can, I might not be happy. The hunger problem is not going to be solved by government or by industry, but in church, among Christians who learn a different way to pursue happiness.

-Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

What does a person need – really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in – and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all – in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?

-Sterling Hayden, Wanderer,

Advertisers regularly con us into believing that we genuinely need one luxury after another. We are convinced that we must keep up with or even go one better than our neighbors. So we buy another dress, sports jacket or sports car and thereby force up the standard of living. The ever more affluent standard of living is the god of twentieth century North America and the adman is its prophet.

-Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger

The danger, then, is that materialism is not only shaping how we live but the way we think as well. It influences our consumer tastes and our preference for high-paying jobs, but it also alters our capacity to pray, the nature of our prayers, and the ways in which religious tutelage instructs our values. It becomes harder for us to hear messages about the suffering of the poor, the need for economic justice, and the desirability of seeing God’s handiwork in simple things or in nature. Materialism draws us into its logic not so much by convincing us that material goods are preferable to helping the poor, but by persuading us that we can help them best by buying luxury goods for ourselves (thereby creating jobs). It permits advertisers to sell us more goods, not less, by emphasizing the virtue of high-quality goods that will last, biodegradable goods that will not pollute the environment, and expensive vacations that will give us opportunities to get away and reflect on our values. In fact, materialism becomes so much a way of life that we no longer recognize it as an option, as one value among others that we can decide to choose or to reject. It ceases to raise questions but is taken for granted as an inevitable feature of our society. Without realizing it, Ronald Reagan perhaps said it best when he commented on our obsession with the getting and keeping of wealth: “That is not materialism,” he asserted; “that is Americanism.”

-Robert Wuthnow, Rethinking Materialism