If You Must Shop

Come on. Have you been shopping in the past week? Did you at least Buy Local? I did. I bought books at King’s English–great place to spend a day and a dollar.

If you must buy gifts this season, I have a couple of my favorite gifts and online stores to recommend.

• Flying Spaghetti Monster emblem from Evolve Fish. Nothing says, “I am in a world of my own” like the noodly appendage on your car. I keep buying emblems for my car and end up giving them away to people who deserve them at least as much as I do. I sure wish my so-called church had chosen to put on a Flying Spaghetti Monster Holiday Pageant rather than a completely predictable display of religion that so few of the children will be able to relate to in any way.

• Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times from AK Press. Why not give a practical guide to low-input gardening? I was given this book recently. It addresses gardening in a way that someone like me, not used to gardening beyond tomatoes and chili peppers, can wrap myself around low-tech, low water food production in the space I have. The book is published by New Society Publishers and Mother Earth News, but I suggest buying it from AK Press because I like them.

• 2007 Peace Calendar from Syracuse Cultural Workers. For several years I have given the peace calendar as a gift to my most peaceful friends. The images are striking. Printed by union labor. You can buy a Teacher’s Guide. All around useful gift. They have a lot of great posters and cards, but I end up opting for this calendar every year.

Better yet, make a gift with your own hands or give the gift of time (give a lesson, cook a meal). I love gifts. I wouldn’t suggest that people NOT give gifts as tokens of their love and care. I am suggesting that it’s possible to give a great gift with both personal and global meaning (or lack thereof in the case of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).

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