What if you woke up one morning to realize you had been living your entire life on a train? You had no idea…just going about your business…completely unaware of movement in any particular direction outside of your control.
A very smart, talented friend of mine, Martin Smith (learn about Martins Cure Cancer Ride here) sent me a video called “The Story Of Stuff.”  The Story of Stuff is really just a great, entertaining explanation of how the current culture in the U.S. is one that encourages waste…Surely nothing we don’t already know in the backs of our minds…but looking at it all at once really puts things in perspective (at least it did for me.)

image from The Story Of Stuff

About half way through watching The Story Of Stuff, I had exactly the feeling of being on a train headed in a direction I didn’t intend to go. The choices I thought I had been making all along about my career, my purchases, my home, were not really mine at all. The options I saw to choose from were only things that were put intentionally on the train I was riding, headed in someone else’s chosen direction, a faint chugging sound always in the background “more, more, more, more.”  Make more to buy more…Whoa. Where are we going?
I created Craft Ideas Weekly to encourage others to explore and expand their creativity. These days, the reasons people often seek develop their creativity is to escape from things in their lives that are unfulfilling, to relax, or as “me time” for stressed out women raising kids and working a lot.  To find a little happiness. All of those reasons are good ones and truly needed – most of us are pushing to the max all the time and that can be really spiritually draining.

But The Story of Stuff really made me think. “Being crafty” today is frequently marketed to creative people as form of instant gratification…about buying a kit, a shiny machine, or something else from the craft store. A product. Being crafty is just so much more than that…it is about the traditions passed down to us from our great-grandmothers who spent time creating things with love because there was nothing else. It is about making something from nothing…something beautiful, something of value, something that the people you made it for would never allow to be tossed in a landfill. It is about exploring solutions to problems no one else could possibly come up with. Something we need to keep sharp on!

If we start to believe that being crafty is about the latest kit or gadget, the resourcefulness, the self-sustainability at the root of human creativity will go underdeveloped. This “more, more, more” culture won’t just destroy our environment but our traditions as well.

Also it occurred to me that thinking about being crafty in terms of stuff we can buy defeats the purpose of being crafty in the first place. We intend to create beauty, but buying disposable “junk” to make our crafts trashes the planet over time. That’s not creative, it is destructive.

What am I going to do to stop this train? I am going to stop buying junk. Today. If it will have no value to me in 6 months and will end up in a landfill somewhere 10 years down the road, it’s junk.

I am also going to be vocal about wanting items I use for arts and crafts to be sustainable, durable (so I can buy one for a lifetime,) and not pollute the environment when it is made or inevitably thrown out. Was this item made in a way that polluted our environment or stripped the planet’s natural resources? If so, it caused damage in its creation and will continue to cause damage when it is thrown away. Even better, make it well and of high enough quality that it can be passed to my children.

Sure it feels good to buy things that are new and shiny (I do it too!) and I am a sucker for an infomercial (this product will be life changing! lol.) If  the stuff I purchase to make my cute creations is destroying the planet for my great-grandchildren…well, that is just crazy. “Consuming” will always be a necessity and required to keep economies strong. But let’s get real about what we are consuming, where it is coming from, what it is made of, and what happens to it after we no longer need it.  Let’s speak up to companies that make our crafts products and tell them we won’t buy things that cause damage and pollution in their production and aren’t made to last.