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Pat Hannon @phannon November 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

Give Presence

This week North Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, a day to rest and carb-load so we have the energy reserves necessary for Black Friday shopping. Thursday we’ll try real hard to be thankful for what we have so that Friday we can get on with the important business of being thankful for what we are about to buy. Of course, all the stuff we buy on Friday will become the stuff we pretend to be thankful for next year.

Here’s an idea before you head out to do all your Christmas shopping on Friday: Stop. Don’t.

And a confession: I may head out Friday morning out to buy a few small and well priced items. Perhaps I’ll pick up one item I’ve been saving for that is an extra good deal. You’ll probably find me in line at the used bookstore, waiting for my free gift card to use on used books.

But my kids don’t need more stuff and I won’t be buying them a lot of presents.

What they’ll get from me this year:

  • A book. They don’t actually need more books either. They have regular access to great libraries. But I want them to value reading, so I try and leverage the joy of receiving something new with a developing joy of reading.
  • An experience. A few years ago we decided to give presence instead of presents. So instead of buying lots of stuff they don’t need, we do something as a family, being fully present and making memories. The kids love it! So do the parents. This year we’ll make a trip to Chicago, visit some museums, and eat some great pizza.

So, before you head out to wait in line Friday morning, maybe scrap the whole idea and give presence this year.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: christmas, consumerism, parenting, thanksgiving

Pat Hannon @phannon May 13, 2010 Leave a Comment

There’s a tendency, even among those who are trying to buy less stuff, to call everyone “consumers”. The company needs to please its consumers … we consumers need to vote with our dollars … we need watchdogs to protect consumers … consumers are buying less during the recession.
Let’s stop that. We are not consumers.
We’re people.

Leo Babauta, mnmlist: we are not consumers

http://embracethegodlife.com/theres-a-tendency-even-among-those-who-are/

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: consumerism, consumers

Pat Hannon @phannon April 9, 2009 Leave a Comment

Consumer culture is one of the most powerful systems of formation in the contemporary world, arguably more powerful than Christianity. While a Christian may spend an hour per week in church, she may spend twenty-five hours per week watching television, to say nothing of the hours spent on the Internet, listening to the radio, shopping, looking at junk mail and other advertisements. Nearly everywhere we lay our eyes — gas-pump handles, T-shirts, public restroom walls, bank receipts, church bulletins, sports uniforms, and so on — we are confronted by advertising. Such a powerful formative system is not morally neutral: it trains us to see the world in certain ways.

William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire , p.47

http://embracethegodlife.com/consumer-culture-is-one-of-the-most-powerful/

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: consumerism, spiritual formation

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