Tim Abbott

Brand free

You may already have read about Neil Boorman who lived brand-free for a year to rid himself of what he called 'obsessive branding disorder'.

He writes, "I began to realise the more money I spent, the more miserable I became. With mounting debts and plummeting self-esteem, I pledged to do away with these emotional crutches and attempted to live a year of my life brand-free."

Neil's is obviously an extreme case, but it makes for an interesting discussion starter. What is a brand? Does Tesco value clothing not carry a message just as powerfully as designer togs? Isn't the power of the message solely in the eye and mind of the beholder? What about the conflict between going 'brand-free' for a year and then promoting a book about it?

He concludes: By placing less status and emotional value on the things that we buy, we free ourselves from mindless consumption, allowing us more time and money for things which we know, deep down, give us greater contentment.

God is green

I was glad to watch another piece of well written, well researched and sypathetically presented programming on a religious subject on Monday night as Mark Dowd examined the record of various faiths in their approach to the environment.
Through the wonders of Sky+ Amy has the programme saved so if you missed it get in touch with us at CYO and we'll see what we can do. This obviously only applies to readers in some kind of direct contact with CYO!

There is a good write up, with further links, on the Channel 4 web site here.

Marc Alton-Cooper, at creation-blogs, has an interview with Mark Dowd here.

If making green choices is proving difficult, an article in The Times on Saturday examined the respective environmental costs of flying roses in from Kenya against growing them in greenhouses in Holland. Guess which is greener... or click here for the article.

And finally, in a world of consumer and ethical choices that can leave us with option paralysis (do I drive further to buy more ethical or environmental products) Kester writes in this post,

I think there is a way out. A third way between blind belief in the goodness of our actions, and the tangled web of hopelessness. It is what I would call 'the symbolic life'.

What he describes embraces both gift and grace and suggests a way of making a difference whilst living at peace with our decisons. Very helpful.

[Pic: Channel 4]

Roadwarriors - you're crazy

Yesterday Tom (new schools worker) and I had to drive from Colchester to Westbury, Wiltshire, for a meeting with the guys at GSUS Live about the next visit of their mega mobile classroom to our area in the autumn. Including our one hour meeting this round trip of 370 miles took us 12 hours, nearly half of which was on the M25.
Some roadwarriors do this every day - they're crazy. They wear away at their own humanity even as they wear away at the environment.

But, as I've often said; to be in a traffic jam is to be part of the problem.