Freegans and Starving Children

Much to Jason's chagrin, I Tivo Oprah and sometimes catch up on them at night. Two shows in the last week have really convicted me on some things and I thought I would share.

The first show was a report done by Lisa Ling on Freeganism. Freegans are folks that are pretty much anti-consumerism. They are sick of how wasteful Americans are and as a result, live simply and spend their money on helping others. (Some are pretty extreme, going through grocery store dumpsters to salvage food that was thrown out prematurely..no thanks). And yes, Oprah was showing off her pair of Christian Louboutins the entire time.

The second show was this week and had Drew Barrymore talking about the hunger problem in Africa. I know we see these images quite often but this time it really bothered me. I was amazed to learn that unless these kids have food on their stomachs, the medicines so many of them take for AIDS and HIV are useless and go unabsorbed.

I really feel like so much of my life is wasted on thinking about things that really don't matter. I have had my eye on this watch for about 3 years and hint to Jason how bad I want it every holiday but in the scheme of things, it is just a watch and the cost of it could probably really help some one else more than the joy of me getting to look at it every day.

So please know I am not getting on a soapbox. I realize we all work really hard for what we have and most of my friends and family are very philanthropic and civic minded. I just wanted you to know what is on my mind. Here are some of my short term goals to work at this:

1. Try to utilize all the food in my fridge and get out of the habit of throwing things out before they have really gone bad. I will also try to cook more and eat at home more.
2. I am not going to buy any new clothes for as long as I can. I realized while doing laundry that I wear the same things all the time anyway. This was really hard after seeing the cute new swimsuits in this week's Target ad.
3. We are in the process of selling our beloved Vince (the Volvo). Jason and I were blessed not to ever have car payments until Vince came into our lives. As much as I love him, I am sick of writing a check every month and realize that I can live with something that doesn't require monthly payments.
4. Clean out and give away. I really want to focus some time in the next few weeks to just get rid of stuff that is cluttering our house. My friend Micahl and I are going to have a garage sale too!
5. Jason and I are really wanting to go on some kind of mission/service oriented trip in the next year. No definite plans yet, but I will keep you posted.

That is all for today, something to think about. Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!