Something else...

Josh and Jenny, two of my closest friends from college, came up to visit this weekend. We got talking about everything; we used to sit around on our porches smoking pipes and talking for hours on a regular basis. My blog came up in conversation. So did Fair Trade. Here's some progression of my thoughts in just the past few days:

Fair Trade is a great tool for preserving and promoting culture and human dignity. How is this?

In a lot of developing nations, jobs are drying up as fast as the infrastructure they are a part of. Often times, people who can't find work either starve, emigrate to a place where they can find menial labor, or find themselves practicing prostitution or other unfortunate occupations.

In many instances, Fair Trade cooperatives offer people faced with few options a means to sustainable income, and a way to stay in their home community practicing a trade with dignity. Creativity is fostered, joy is had, and redemption can come in places that many of us think are hopeless and beyond change. Having been to Haiti, I'm reminded daily of the hope in that nation by a metal cross, filled with images of the living Earth, that sits behind my bad. This is a product of a cooperative in Haiti, made from recycled oil drums, of all material! And whoever said nothing good could ever come out of Haiti?

Many times, the trades honor and respect cultural traditions -- perhaps they even rewaken some that have been lost over time as Western economic needs have become more practical (how many fancy, handmade bowls can you buy at Wal Mart?) and less about the bigger picture that our purchases and investments are part of.

After all, people can go into whatever major retailer they prefer and buy something, but a sales associate probably can't tell you about who made it, what their life was like before and after the person who gets the product to the retailer showed up on the scene, and how good their life is now. Hear me: I am not saying all major retailers or wholly bad; only that they do not typically market their products in a holistic fashion.

10,000 Villages offers costumers a neat opportunity to learn about the person (or at least group of persons) who made the product. why one's purchase improves lives; and makes all of the information available to every customer who walks in the store. This is something more personal (and therefore inherently relational) than most other stores.

Shopping at 10,000 Villages might be a catalyst for who-knows-what. It might encourage someone to research what social problems plague women of Peru, and get involved in a women's rights movement. It might encourage a group of friends to take a trip to Kenya and find out how to connect the Gospel with a more Christ-focused way of 'doing economics'. It might be the first step in learning about what Fair Trade is, and lead someone to think more critically about their economic behavior.

Some things I am learning

So, I had coffee with a new friend this morning, and we talked about organizing and we talked about discipleship. One of the topics we touched on before we had to go our separate ways was my "approach", if you will.

Something I have known for a few years, but probably not spent enough self-examination on, is my "approach". If you know me, you know what I am driving at. If you don't know me well, yet, then what I mean to say is this: I am a very passionate person who tends to sit and wrestle with issues for a long time. It's tough for me to act on an issue until I've thought it through, and usually my convictions run deep and overlap into different facets of my life.

For example: If you read my last post, you saw how confused I am working for a company like 10,000 Villages, which in most of our minds, is clearly a good company to work for. They're Fair Trade, they pay well, they offer good health insurance benefits, etc etc. How could I be conflicted working there?

The fact is that I've bought into some fairly radical (maybe even crazy) theology and social theory, and if you get to know me, it will come out. If it comes out before you know me, it might scare you away. It might even scare you away once you get to know me! Part of that means that I don't want to settle for anything less than holistic, thorough life change and reorientation, and I often forget the small steps that we each take on our journey make up the whole. In 2004, it was a big step of faith for me to say "God, I want to be on your side and be used by you". That led me to reading my Bible on a regular basis, praying, and eventually attending Eastern University.

At Eastern, the small steps took on new dimensions. They entailed rethinking my spending habits, where I spent my time (I went from watching movies and blogging about them constantly to hanging out with homeless folks), and the environmental impacts of my lifestyle. As I look back on the past 4 years of my life, I take those commitments for granted and often forget that my friends have had different sets of life experiences, and I am quick to judge them, slow to seek them out and listen to their stories.

So, now I am in Boston, and I've only been here for 6 weeks. I have a chance to start fresh. I have a chance to ask questions first, to speak more slowly, and to express myself appropriately. Hopefully, I can invite others to be part of the journey without being an exclusivist, or worse yet, an asshole.

I post all of this only to put myself out there (another one of my quirks) in hopes that those of you reading and joining me in the journey can now feel okay with encouraging me when I do well, but moreso, to push me when I forget about where my heart is and where I want my words and actions to be.

May we all be people of grace, who pray for God to open doors of change in our lives and communities, and walk through those doors when He does open them.

-- BC