I have thoughts and such.
In my current stage in life, I have a lot of time to look around me and observe the goings-on in the world, so I wanted to share some of my observations. Now, I just ask that you keep an open mind, because chances are you will feel on the defensive by at least some of the points I make. But I trust that if you can find the element of truth as it applies to yourself, I think we will all be better for it. I have already taken myself through the same wringer, but without judgment, and with hope as an end goal. I hope you might do the same.
Let me start with the zinger: I think humanity’s greatest flaw right now is that it has a profound disconnect with the natural world. We have an utter lack of concern for anything we perceive to be inconvenient, not immediate, or not serving ourselves and ourselves only. We have lost our mindfulness: the where and whys of the things we take for granted. There is a cost behind every convenience, and that is what I am hoping to make known here today. The five-dollar deal from Target you boast about on the socials comes at a cost. A cost of which you might not be mindful, because so long as your needs are met, what else should you care about?
You probably already have some idea that there is an invisible cost, that the manufacturer went to the place they could get the garment made as quickly as possible, for as little money, to make the largest profit. You’ve heard of “better, faster, cheaper”? There probably isn’t a person in North America who hasn’t heard of this before. But if we have heard it, why don’t we care? Why do we still only shop to get the best deal?
You say there isn’t enough to go around, and that’s why you shop for the best deal?
According to the Nutrition Journal, approximately 27% of daily food expenditures is wasted and thrown in the garbage[1]. Okay, that’s more than a quarter of what we buy. So here is where mindfulness comes in. Do you shop at places where you can save a buck, buying in bulk, only to have it go bad in your fridge and you’re forced to deal with it days, weeks or months later?
Europeans typically buy groceries daily. They buy what they plan on cooking that day, so there is little waste. That sounds mindful to me!
But I don’t have time to shop every day, you say! With a little mindfulness, you would realize that it wouldn’t take that long to buy a handful of items at a grocery store. You could be in and out in less than 15 minutes.
But I am too busy carting my kids around, I don’t have time for shopping and cooking! Okay, let me ask you this. Do you need to cart your children around? Are any of these things to which you need to drive them within walking distance? Are there other children also going? Can they walk together? Can you and other parents take turns driving? You’re saying you can’t because you have lost your connection to the world. You feel inconvenienced. Maybe you simply haven’t thought of any alternatives, it doesn’t mean there aren’t any.
What about buying groceries for the next day, or for two days instead of two weeks? Surely, that would be doable. You could chop vegetables and throw them in a crockpot before you leave for work. Your meal could be hot and ready when you get home. We all know you’re tired at the end of the day, so make the morning a priority for getting dinner ready. A homemade meal will pack a better nutritional punch too than anything you could get as take out.
But the store is so far away, you say. Well, perhaps that is also due to a lack of mindfulness. You live in the ‘burbs because that’s the only house you could afford. But what about the wear and tear on your vehicle? What about increased car insurance rates? The price of gas? Then driving your kids everywhere because you DO live in a place where walking isn’t possible. If you employ mindfulness, however, you will see that all these figures add up and maybe the house is a little beyond your budget to begin with, because you bought one bigger than your current needs, because we are ‘growing our family.’ But the cost of heating and cooling that home is also expensive. Not to mention keeping it clean. You feel overwhelmed. You have lost your sense of place in the natural world.
Being mindful requires first a humility in admitting we are disconnected from our natural world and from each other. And that’s a tall order for people who have been conditioned to be skeptical of others, who value their privacy and don’t want others telling them what to do or how to be. So, are you humble enough to be willing to be more mindful? Your journey can still be your own. You can employ things I haven’t thought of. I am no expert, just someone who believes that a few meaningful changes can have huge impact.
You can start small. For instance, the next time you are at the grocery store, read the label of the product you are buying! Where is it made? If it doesn’t say, or it says ‘imported by’ then you know it comes from some mystery place far away. Or if it does tell you the country of origin and it is across the globe, perhaps you could choose to buy a closer alternative. For instance, do we need to buy chives that come all the way from Israel? Chives can easily be grown in Canada and the US. In fact, you could even grow them yourself in little pots, with a bit of mindfulness.
The implications of food waste go beyond how they impact us financially. There are environmental implications. Land is used to grow food, while fertilizers and pesticides are used to increase yields. Food is transported, sometimes great distances. What you are eating could be rare and under species decline. Have you heard of shark fin soup?[2] Sharks are caught, their fins removed, and they are thrown back into the sea, helpless. Yes, that’s a thing. Now that you know, you have a responsibility to not pretend you don’t.
So being mindful of what you eat is of utmost importance. Have you ever wondered why we change the name of the animals we eat before we eat them? Cow becomes beef, pig becomes pork, baby cows become veal, etc., etc. Maybe it is so that we can be conditioned to be less mindful about them. How many animals are slaughtered every day and never make it to the dining table? This is something you could be thinking about in your approach to eating.
There are also health implications. Most of the food waste involves higher quality food, like meats, seafood and fruits and vegetables.[3] So we are throwing out the good stuff, the stuff with a higher environmental and social cost, and opting for sweeter, faster foods instead. Apparently, less than 10% of Americans consume the daily required amounts of fruits and vegetables, while 60-70% exceed their daily requirements in both calories and fat.[4] While I am a vegetarian, I don’t expect everyone to adopt that lifestyle. It might not be right for you. But as a meat eater, is there a chance you could be more mindful, more intentional about your choices and sources? Could you do research on topics such as global food insecurity and sustainability?
Maybe you could start shopping for fresh produce at a local market every week. Sure, you might pay more for it, but you are consciously choosing to do that because you want to have a connection to the food you eat. You decide you would rather give your money to a local farmer than a grocery giant. You start to get to know the vendor. They know your name, you know theirs. You make a human connection which, according to the study on Blue Zones, is one of the primary factors in human longevity.[5] And I am talking about basic human connections: the person at the market, the person you encounter on your morning run. It is these interactions, in addition to the obvious intentional ones like those with friends that create one of the best environments for human longevity. So, saying hi to your neighbour matters. Greeting your cashier or the person who sits across from you in the steam room is important.
Okay, so let’s go back to the topic of clothing. According to Forbes magazine, an average American household spends about $1700 annually on clothes.[6] But these are not items we need but simply want. Women on average now have 30 outfits, enough to never repeat a wear in a whole month’s time. And of course, having more clothing means we need more storage for it. Not to mention shoes. Some people have a real problem with buying shoes, so much so that entire closets can be designated to shoes alone. For reals.
Let’s examine again the real cost of these clothing/shoe items too: Where are they made? Who made them? And what are they made of? These are important questions to ask yourself when you pursue more mindful living. Most things are made in China. That is simply a reality. China is one of the world’s biggest trade partners. And they know how to satisfy our lust for all things. Alternatives are hard to find. And one of the primary reasons is that we have been seduced by the bigger, better (although I beg to differ that it is better), cheaper, and have caused local manufacturers to go out of business because we stopped buying their more expensive alternatives. Yes, it is our fault! But we have made this bed, and we need to sleep in it now. So, are there better alternatives to choose from? (I am sorry, but a shirt made from hemp kind of looks like someone took a potato bag and cut out sleeves.) Are there made-in-China alternatives that could be better for us? Possibly. But you will need to do A LOT of research.
There are also mixed messages as far as marketing that are intentionally made to confuse consumers. Yes, you are being duped, but don’t worry, you’ll be ok. For instance, let’s take the idea of an item being vegan. That simply means it is not made from an animal. While in and of itself that sounds reasonable, how long does this ‘vegan’ item last compared to an animal version (let’s take a shoe as an example)? Well, a leather shoe can last you several seasons, a lifetime even, if it is good quality. Sure, you might need to repair the sole or the heel, but it could last you a lifetime. A so-called ‘vegan’ alternative might start to show signs of breaking down within a season of wear. Which means it will soon end up on a landfill. Which is the truly more mindful alternative?
Likewise, the idea of an article of clothing boasting being made of soda bottles, that sounds worthwhile, doesn’t it? I fell victim to this illusion of environmental sustainability[7] and bought my first pair of leather-look pants made from plastic pop bottles a few years back. Of course, I told everyone about that too. Look at me helping save the world! But these pants fell apart and had a crease at the waist within months and eventually, within a year, I had to throw them out. Not very environmentally friendly, if you ask me. And here is the thing the clothing manufacturer doesn’t tell you: By taking that pop bottle out of recycling rotation (a consistent reincarnation from pop bottle to pop bottle), you now create a linear product that has only one outcome after use: the landfill. So, just be smart and don’t be fooled by buzz words. If you want to know the truth, you need to do research.
Okay, let’s look at who made these garments! Well, we might not know, but we have a pretty good idea. Be wary of designer clothing lines that you might assume due to higher price tag are higher quality. Many of the items under designer labels are made in the same factories as inexpensive versions.[8] Trust that every manufacturer is out to make a buck, the designer labels most likely just get a bigger share, though their niche market means they won’t serve as many customers as the manufacturers of the cheap versions. Be careful of the words on labels that read: ‘designed in’. An item may be designed in Italy but crafted by poorly paid workers anywhere in the globe. Be mindful too that rules that apply to labour in Canada and the US can be circumvented by manufacturing elsewhere. Don’t assume fair treatment or pay.
In China, from which 65% of our clothing comes from, the average garment worker makes minimum wage (up to $350USD weekly), which is less than half of what their living wage would equate to ($780USD).[9]
In Bangladesh, this amount is even less, with pay being around 1/5 of the income required to live in any measure of comfort. So, Bangladeshis need to work five days to make the equivalent of a single day’s pay.
These are just some of the examples of injustices surrounding our appetite for cheap fashion. Be mindful. Buy used clothing. Even some of the time. Buy less clothing. Wear your clothing longer! Who says that that colour is so last year? And do your research. But be careful because companies will do their best to conceal their shady manufacturing practices. They may even dangle you a carrot to show you how forward-thinking and awesome they are, whether it be a charity campaign or whatever, all while hiding the truth of their dealings. The simple reality is that we will probably never know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as far as the garment industry goes. That is the sad reality. So, probably my best advice, is buy natural fibres of higher quality that will last longer and buy less often. A lot less often. Shop second hand. There are some awesome thrift stores around and a bit of laundering can go a long way to get rid of the heebie jeebies.
Of course, there are other factors to consider, including environmental impacts and pollution. But we are just scratching the surface here for newbies who have only taken their first few steps on their journey to mindfulness. We will save some of these other impacts for later.
What if being mindful meant doing without some things? I am sure this is not at all news to anyone when I state that the world’s wealth is disproportionate. That is an understatement. We in the west consider many things in our lives to be a given, to be necessities: owing a house, owning a car, owning a cell phone, having a gym membership. Yet, reality is that much of the world functions without at least some of these luxuries.
I remember being deeply impacted by a colorful photo exposé I read years ago called, Material World. Published in 1994 and written by Peter Menzel (text by Charles C. Mann), it contains candid pictures of families across the globe proudly displaying the contents of their homes in front of their lodgings. You would be surprised with what little people owned, yet also with how little people can make do.
But the thing that struck me most from looking at these photos is that you got a sense from each of the families that they considered themselves rich in a way, to be showing off their belongings. You could see the pride on their faces as they displayed what they had in their possession.
We already know that the planet’s rate of growth is not sustainable. If the whole globe lived our western lifestyle, we would run out of planet very quickly. According to the Centre for Sustainable Systems out of the University of Michigan, we would require 5 earths to allow everyone on the planet to live an American lifestyle.[10]
Let me start with some figures. In 2022, The United States imported approximately $576 billion worth of goods from China alone[11]. Imagine how many cargo ships this equates to traversing our oceans every day? That’s a lot of stuff, and of course, there is stuff going the opposite direction too. Things that we and the US export to China.
Being mindful might just mean buying less stuff. Yes, you might need to make do with less stuff. The toys you buy that your children barely use and end up on the curb when they have outgrown any possibility of ever using them? When I was a kid, we played outside. We didn’t have many toys. Or PS3s or Gameboys, or cell phones and fancy cases to go around them that appealed to our individual fancy. We played with our friends outside. We got dirty. We rode our bikes. When we did play with toys it was a few very special ones. I had a few stuffed animals, the Mousetrap game, a pair of Barbies. I treasured the paperback books I bought at school through Scholastic with money I got from returning pop bottles. I remember the thrill of being able to buy them myself.
Perhaps the world could consider a kind of minimum standard by which all human beings can equally live and thrive? A dollar amount by which we could all live similar lives. Would we be willing to have less?
Remember those faces I mentioned in the book, Material World? They all seemed happy, even with their measly possessions.
But there are other invisible things that can make one feel happy and these are often things that we take for granted in North America. Things like political stability, safety, access to resources, fresh water, food, meaningful work, good wages, trustworthiness of government, social interaction. A lack of these things can make people feel less happy. In the World Happiness Index 2023[12], we see that the parts of the world that are happiest also tend to be the richest. So, wouldn’t it be a great idea to increase the wellbeing of everyone? Okay, I may be getting ahead of myself here, and I will probably look at this in greater detail later. Just be thinking about it in the back of your mind until then.
[1] https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-020-00552-w
[2] https://www.hsi.org/issues/shark-finning/
[3] https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-020-00552-w
[4] https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-020-00552-w
[5] https://www.bluezones.com/2017/10/face-face-interactions-not-facebook-connections-impact-health-longevity/
[6] https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmajohnson/2015/01/15/the-real-cost-of-your-shopping-habits/?sh=7ae70e31452d
[7] https://www.unesda.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Letter-from-NGO-Industry-coalition-on-the-promotion-of-closed-loop-recycling-in-the-EU-Sustainable-and-Circular-Textiles-Strategy_Final.pdf
[8] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323998604578567522527553976
[9][9] https://goodmakertales.com/where-do-clothing-brands-manufacture/#:~:text=While%20a%20clothing%20business%20may,world’s%20clothing%20being%20made%20there.
[10] Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan. 2023. “U.S. Environmental Footprint Factsheet.” Pub. No. CSS08-08.https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/sustainability-indicators/us-environmental-footprint-factsheet
[11] https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/imports/china
[12]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report#/media/File:A_color_coded_map_of_the_world_levels_of_happiness_as_measured_by_the_World_Happiness_Index_(2023).svg
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