Let’s just dive right in, shall we?  Let’s talk about money.  I’ve been thinking and praying a lot about these next posts.  Ben reminded me of something wonderful, which is what I definitely want to start with – that we are given so many gifts.  It is so easy for all of us (myself included!) to focus on what we don’t have, what we haven’t accomplished, what our children or spouse or friends don’t do.  But the truth, the solid everyday truth is that we have been given tremendous gifts.  We wake up each morning to a rising sun, we have wonderful people in our lives, when seeds are planted, they grow into food.  I think this is where we begin – we begin with the tremendous gifts that we are all given, and the understanding that we are also given the work of trying to protect those gifts.

What I most want to say about money (or really, about spending money) is to say that each time we spend money we make a choice.  On the one hand, this is obvious, but it’s also easy to forget.  We’re hungry, so we buy some food, we think that when we buy a shirt we’re just buying a shirt.  The truth is that when we give our money to someone else, we are telling them Yes.  Yes, I like what you do and I want you to keep doing it.  Yes, I think you deserve this money.  Yes, I want you to make more of these.

If we don’t stop to understand who we’re giving our money to, we will find ourselves saying Yes to a lot of things we would never claim to want to say yes to.  And yet we do it every day.  We buy gas for our cars and we say Yes to climate change.  We buy food grown with chemicals and harvested by mistreated workers (some of them children) and flown halfway around the world, and we say Yes to destroying soil and water, Yes to abusing our brothers and sisters, Yes to extravagantly wasting fuel and again, Yes to climate change.

I am not suggesting that we all stop buying everything.  Many of you have read my Buy Less Stuff post (it’s one of the most read on this blog), so you know that I do believe in buying less, but most importantly of all, I believe in being very careful about what we do buy.  I don’t think it’s hard to see that we live in a country that uses and controls a tremendous amount of the world’s resources.  And frighteningly enough, our policies and laws do not reflect the good of humanity, or the will of the people, they reflect the desires of large corporations (and their desire is to make money, no matter the true cost).

Lobbyists spent $3.5 billion in 2010 “honoring” members of Congress.  Do any of us believe this money is given “free” of expectations?  When time and again laws and regulations are made (or not made) that clearly go against common sense and health?

We may not feel that we have the power to change our entire political system, but we absolutely have the power to refuse to give them our money. When you stop to think about it, you wouldn’t give money to the Mafia.  So why give it to companies who use their money in the same way – to bend laws to their own whims?  Remember that giving money does not just mean what we buy – it also means what companies you choose to invest in.  We have, each of us, the choice not to make the majority of our purchases from mega-companies.  It can be a hard habit to break, but it can be done, and while I don’t claim do be perfect or a saint, I can truthfully say that our family participates as little as we can in giving money to companies we don’t share values with, and we work hard all the time to find more ways to improve that.

Phew – ok, I think that’s enough for one day!  I’m going to talk about ways to help create positive change next time in two ways  – some of them will cost you nothing, and some of them will cost you, at least in the short term.  Also, I do plan to intersperse these heavy posts with some “regular” posts, lol.  Thanks for listening and discussing, friends.  Also, please read Ben’s post today at www.wheatberry.org about his trip to the Tar Sands protest, and what each of us can do.

Some good resources for what companies to avoid:

(Note: one thing that can be really tricky is that huge corporations own tons of smaller “labels” so it can be hard to know what big company you’re really buying from.  Honestly, I think the best policy is to strive to buy used items or items from small, independent companies.)

15 Worst Companies for the Planet

“Most Wanted” Human Rights Violators

Green Shopping Guide (list of green companies, mostly clothing)

Climate Counts Company Scorecard

Updated to add:  This is pretty shockingly low, but please add your voice: Tell Oprah: Denounce the dirty tar sands lies broadcast on your network — it’s outrageous to suggest that exploiting Canadian tar sands oil will empower women in the Middle East. Click here to automatically sign the petition.