The ethics of HOMEMADE.
I grew up making cards and gifts. I'd work so hard on these, before parties, as an adult, that I'd often get to a birthday party too late for all the activity, but just in time to let my homemade gift have it's debut. The making was an open ended contemplation, often very creative and risky and full of utter surprise. Making would always take far longer then expected. The pressure made me very productive -- the pressure to arrive with a gift at least before the end of a party.
It has been a stubborn and insistent decision that the plethora of funky, fun, wild, imaginative, artsy cards in stores shall not replace my value on the homemade. So, as we sit to make "love sharings" for upcoming events like Valentine's Day (or the nearly coinciding DARWIN DAY), my Ethical students and I contemplate the VALUE of the HOMEMADE.
The most important vision or answer about this is impressively obvious to my Ethical students. They say aptly that something homemade is unique, and thoughtful beyond the potential of something bought. The expression by one person's homemade thought toward another person is, by definition, utterly unique. Unbuyable. Priceless.
I like to make sure to take it even farther. Use recycled materials. Create inner joy doing it. Contemplate creativley. Then, honor it in its giving.
I grew up making cards and gifts. I'd work so hard on these, before parties, as an adult, that I'd often get to a birthday party too late for all the activity, but just in time to let my homemade gift have it's debut. The making was an open ended contemplation, often very creative and risky and full of utter surprise. Making would always take far longer then expected. The pressure made me very productive -- the pressure to arrive with a gift at least before the end of a party.
It has been a stubborn and insistent decision that the plethora of funky, fun, wild, imaginative, artsy cards in stores shall not replace my value on the homemade. So, as we sit to make "love sharings" for upcoming events like Valentine's Day (or the nearly coinciding DARWIN DAY), my Ethical students and I contemplate the VALUE of the HOMEMADE.
The most important vision or answer about this is impressively obvious to my Ethical students. They say aptly that something homemade is unique, and thoughtful beyond the potential of something bought. The expression by one person's homemade thought toward another person is, by definition, utterly unique. Unbuyable. Priceless.
I like to make sure to take it even farther. Use recycled materials. Create inner joy doing it. Contemplate creativley. Then, honor it in its giving.
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