"Giving Up Half Of Our Possessions Made Our Family Whole"
Stirred by economic injustice in the world, this Atlanta family felt convicted to sell their large home and through downsizing, give the proceeds to those in need. (In this case, it wound up benefitting 30 villages in Ghana.)
Click here to read the article.
Security, protection from scarcity and a temptation toward pride is so hard-wired in our systems, it is difficult to look very hard to see where we may be off.
The father and daughter of this family wrote a book about their experiences called “The Power of Half” which encourages readers to consider where there is excess in their lives—excess that could be making an impact. And it isn’t just about money.
Father and co-author Kevin Salwen writes:
…The more we’ve examined this abundant life the more we realize that everyone has more than enough of something. Spend 6 hours a week on Facebook? Cut it in half and now you have a new 3-hour resource to sing in a nursing home or clean a neighborhood park. Eat out four times a week? Cut that in half and share what you save with the local soup kitchen…A life of abundance, not scarcity.
It’s an interesting challenge. In this case, it’s powerful to imagine the far-reaching and ongoing result from this one family. Granted, they are wealthier than many, but still, through the charity they donated to, dozens of villages in Ghana have been provided with education, job training and basic infrastructure needs.
Have you had an experience where something caused you take stock of your life in a way that you hadn’t before? Did you give in a way that was different than usual? What was the result?
Send your stories to media@rswr.org.
Watch an interview with the Salwen’s.
Lead Us Not Into Excess, Share the Abundance
Wess Daniels is a Quaker pastor and writer from Camas, WA. He was asked recently to reflect on the meaning of abundance. Below is his response.
Abundance surrounds us. It fills our closets, drawers, backpacks and our garbage cans. And for many of us who are connected to a wide variety of privileges our abundance often translates into waste.
A friend of mine recently made a documentary called Dive! It poignantly addresses the connection between garbage and hunger, excess and waste. The film tracks a number of young white urbanites who have a new found joy in ‘rescuing’ food from the dumpster. This joy is challenged as they become aware of other, less privileged folks, also coming to the dumpsters for food. The majority of the film dives into the connection between what lays as waste in our dumpsters and the great disparity and hunger both in our own society and around the world.
The film was documented during the growing global food crisis of 2008 and covers well the impact that this had on many low-income families in the US. The contrast between the amount of food found in dumpsters like Trader Joe’s in Los Angeles and the growing lack of food at LA food banks shocked the filmmakers. Filmmaker Jeremy Seifert notes, “In the physical act of jumping in a dumpster and eating waste something happens, the reality strikes you of what is taking place.”
And the reality is stark. Every year 96 billion pounds of food are thrown away in America, 11 million pounds a day, and a good majority of that food is fresh or days away from its expiration date. Recovering just some of this would make a huge difference. “The Department of Agriculture estimated in 1996 that recovering just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people. Today we recover less than 2.5 percent” (Dive Website).
The problem is not so much that we don’t have enough, but that some people have too much. Abundance is not the main issue at stake here, the abundance of the few is.
We live in a society of trash and are okay with this as long as it is our own excess we are throwing out. We forget that many in America (let alone other places in the world) do not have access to this excess. Thus, the poor among us end up eating our trash. The earth and all its creatures have for us become simply something to hoard, consume and then throw away. Excess and abundance counter our deep-seated fears of scarcity. As Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “Forfeit your sense of awe, let your conceit diminish your ability to revere, and the universe becomes a market place for you.” To take this one step further, when we lose that sense of awe, we lose that sense of right sharing and just distribution and in doing so we lose our sense of responsibility to one another.
We then turn this question back on ourselves and consider the ways in which our own fears of scarcity and desire for abundance can actually create a vacuum of resources for others. While we may want to foster and nurture abundance, how are we participating, implicitly or explicitly, in a system of unjust distribution? Who is and is not showing up to eat what is available? Are there ways that we can get “abundance” into the right hands, into the hands of the people who need it? Abundance is excess unless it leads to just distribution.
In our day, the Bible has been misused to mark out a theology of waste and excess. Yet, I am constantly drawn back to Jesus’ radical prayer where he teaches his disciples to pray for “daily bread,” to “forgive debts” and to “rescue us from temptation” (Mt 6). In these petitions, there is a recognition of our constant temptation to take more than we need, to hoard and build up debt, and to focus in on abundance rather than right sharing. I think Jesus’ intentions were to help form a community of sharers rather than takers. This community is based on the conviction that God has given enough for all people and a rightly ordered community will live in a way that makes part of its mission to actually be givers of daily bread. It will be a community that seeks to cancel debts and live in a way that frees from temptation to take more than is needed so that there is enough to go around. Otherwise this community might become people who pray to God for daily bread on the one hand, while on the other hand they take in excess so that their neighbors go hungry.
In the Quaker tradition, of which I am part, we have worked to limit what we take out of a desire to be better distributors or sharers. We recognize that greed and hoarding, or a desire for our own abundance, are actually at the heart of a lot of evil in the world. John Woolman, the Quaker abolitionist and 17th century advocate for human rights, wrote in his journal after visiting slaveholder’s homes to challenge them on their practice, “The love of ease and gain are the motives in general of keeping slaves.”
Some of the faces have changed (ever so slightly) but our own love of ease and gain still keeps our dumpsters full and many bellies hungry.
Questions for reflection:
● How is our own love of ease and gain actually implicated in enslaving others?
● What do we desire in excess? And how does this actually create a vacuum somewhere else, whether in our own lives or in the lives of others?
● What forms of “abundance” do I participate in that may be coded in a way that I do not recognize that I am actually being a taker rather than a giver of daily bread?
Released Minister @ Camas Friends Church: A Quaker Meeting
RSWR Eco-tip: Rep
RSWR Eco-tip: Replace paper napkins with cloth napkins.
Its easy to have a debate in your head about disposable versus the energy and resources it takes to produce and launder cloth napkins. But it turns out the good far outweighs the bad.
Bringing or providing cloth napkins is something simple you can do to save the earth’s resources and save money over time. Soft, thick and available in beautiful colors and textures, cloth napkins also look cool and feel luxurious.
WHY TAKE ON THIS GOAL?
- Paper products use up entire forests – in total, 75% of the plantations established for paper and wood products in the last 20 years have been established at the expense of natural forests.
- Paper products create pollution; in fact, the paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
- Paper products use excessive water and energy to manufacture.
- Typical paper towels are manufactured using chlorine, a known toxin which releases carcinogenic dioxins into the environment.
- Paper products account for 25% of landfill waste. In turn, landfills account for one third of human-related methane emissions.
- The majority of all commercial inks used in paper products are made with petroleum, a non-renewable resource.
The major reason you should give up paper towels and paper napkins is because on top of creating some serious negative environmental impacts, they’re unnecessary. This isn’t about something vital like food, shelter or clothing; it’s about a totally expendable item.
Paper napkin image via rubiyat.
Right Sharing of World Resources: www.rswr.org
Warming up where you live? The
Warming up where you live? The first day of spring came over the weekend, and already windows are open and people share sidewalk lunches at area cafes. Planning a picnic or gathering with friends and family? Stock up at garage sales and thrift stores on mismatched plates and flatwares to have on hand and share at these events. Eliminate the need for plastics and non-recyclables, show up in style, and savor the land for future outdoor activities.
image via http://pinterest.com/pin/8354245/
It is one of those
It is one of those odd winter days where it suddenly warms enough to open the windows. Robins with chests as orange as bricks peck in the withered brown leaves outside, dipping their necks into a bowl of water puddled beneath our rain barrel. Spring is not hard to imagine at this point, though we hope the tree buds don’t become overzealous, because we know winter will fight back before long. Most of are aware that indoor air pollution can be up to 10 times worse than outdoor air pollution. Opening the windows, first chance you get (and often) can clear out some of the VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) produced from heating, the off-gassing of paints, mattresses, flooring and tracked-in pesticides.
(Photo via Natural Home Magazine)
Then, when you are ready to set in with some spring cleaning, here are some easy recipes to remove grime while neutralizing the air in which you breathe. It’s a slight time investment to make your own household cleaners, but as you will see, it is easy, healthier, and saves money over the long haul.
These recipes are via Natural Home Magazine.
All-purpose cleaner and disinfectant
Just as effective as popular antibacterial cleansers, this formula is perfect for kitchen and bathroom surfaces.
2 cups hot water
¼ cup white vinegar
½ teaspoon washing soda (similar to, but more caustic than, baking soda)
15 drops tea tree essential oil
15 drops lavender essential oil
Combine all ingredients in a reusable spray bottle and shake well. To use, spray on surfaces, especially cutting boards, countertops and toilets. Wipe with a dry cloth.
Creamy nonabrasive cleaner
Perfect for acrylic and fiberglass surfaces, this smooth cleanser won’t scratch tubs, stovetops or laminate countertops.
¼ cup borax
Vegetable oil-based liquid soap (also known as castile soap)
½ teaspoon lemon essential oil
In a small bowl, combine borax with just enough liquid soap to create a thick paste. Add essential oil and blend well. To use, scoop a small amount of cleaner onto a damp sponge. Scrub surface and rinse well.
Let us know how it goes! E-mail us at media@rswr.org if you have recipes, or other eco-tips to share.
~Betsy B.
