Re: [pf] Need your help today (for Priscilla's sermon)

At 05:38 23/2/2001 -0800, Priscilla wrote:
>... help me with my service/sermon for Sunday:
>... our moral imperative in terms of consumerism and choices 
>regarding our lifestyles.
>
> I'm thinking of opening the sermon with a description of the morning
routines of a typical mother getting kids ready for school and a mother in
a third world country getting ready for her day.  I think this kind of
contrast can say more than statistics.
>
>What do people need to hear ... What can help people to begin to *wake up*
and feel empowered to make even small changes in their patterns of
consumption? 
>
>Looking for your input. Priscilla
>

· I'm not good at this stuff, but you're still hoping for our help, so here
goes.

· I think your "bringing it home" to your congregation is the right way; a
mother's morning preparations would be one part.
· I don't know the typical ages of your people; how long ago were they
late-20s-to-mid-30s?
· Perhaps: thinking ahead to her preparation of the evening meal, the
amount of care she puts in while making it, and the obvious appreciation of
all there, for what she has done for them? (I'm obviously thinking of meal
preparation in 95% of families around the world, not in the tiny rich
ghetto that's North America.)

· And then maybe something about the man working really hard for months,
maybe over a year, putting savings aside with the goal of eventually buying
a motorised three-wheeler, a "tuk-tuk". And the family's pride and
enjoyment in using it. Such a Thai family is probably at the world average
income, IMO.
  I remember the corresponding thing in New Zealand starting in 1951: we
were quite poor; my mother worked for 2 years (giving music lessons; she is
a GRSM*) to eventually buy a car (a 1953 Vauxhall Wyvern) which was big
enough to take all of us, including her invalid mother and our cat, on
camping trips. (* Graduate, Royal Schools of Music - London)

· Another aspect is: getting full use out of what you do buy; not just
throwing it out in the garbage (or even in the Goodwill bin), when you
simply don't want it.
  I'm sure many of your Pennsylvania people would resonate to that.

· My last comment is on the /amount/ of garbage. If, for any reason (lack
of anywhere to put it, strike of the garbage collectors, etc.) your people
couldn't have their garbage removed for a month or more, what alternatives
would they have, if they'd been warned this was coming?
- Buying less?
- Separating the food scraps, to be buried in the garden, so their
garbage-bags didn't stink, and there was more room in each one?
- Taking their own containers to the store, and buying food from a
bulk-food (un-packaged) store or section?

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
************************************************

____________________________________________________________
T O P I C A  -- Learn More. Surf Less. 
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose.
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01