Like Ralph’s family, “waste was anathema” in my family. However, waste was limited to the food that we wasted.
Waste was not failing to recycle something that was recyclable (although recycling was something my family did). Waste was not driving somewhere that we could have easily walked to. Waste was not supporting systems in America that are inherently wasteful.
My mother and I developed a bond through scarcity and thriftiness. Going to the thrift stores to buy clothing and to find treasures that were discarded were always fun times for me. From the time I was in grade school to middle school, garage sales were a popular event to attend. In my high school years and now, antique malls are amazing places to go to.
Indirectly and without acknowledging it, the promotion of buying furniture and decorations from antique malls rather than promoting corporations by buying their furniture and decorations is contributing to combating the amount of waste Americans create daily. Although, I must point out a lot of the things we bought over the years have their roots grounded in the past times of this nation which have been very imperialistic, exceptionalistic, and patriotically corporate and military.
But, you can’t beat the feeling of making your house look like something from the ‘50s or ‘60s. When you think of this time we are living now under Bush, I cannot imagine how anyone could not feel the need to remember a past time that was better.
For me, scarcity is a tradition by which I will lead my life from now until I die. I will not drive my car if I can get there without having to contribute to the exorbitant profits of ExxonMobil. I will not eat food unless I am really hungry because I recognize that the price of food and the availability of food are going in a direction that will have dire consequences for America. I will not throw something out if it can be recycled or reused a second, third, or fourth time.
I prefer to stick to the objects that are immaterial. I prefer my imagination over some gizmo or gadget that is going to occupy my mind. The feelings of laughter and joy and compassion I have between personal engagements are far more enjoyable than watching a film, listening to music, or blogging will ever be.
I am not a restless consumer. Or a reckless consumer.
VI. The Tradition of Sibling Equality
My mother and father always expressed the importance of respecting my brother. And I normally rejected the importance of respecting my brother. As a result, there is quite a distance between my brother and me.
The distance is not so much that we do not like each other as much as it is that we live two different lives. He lives a life that is still involved in high school and finding one’s voice in the world. I live a life that consists of finding a way to act upon the knowledge that I have gained in my twenty years of life here on Planet Earth.
If you’re wondering, he is not political. He is apolitical. He digs the filth of reality television and rap/hip-hop music and YouTube videos. He’s into the IPods, the designer cell phones (which have parts that were acquired by colonialism in the Congo), and the Guitar Hero (which teaches you how to pretend to play the guitar and costs more money to enjoy than if you were to just buy a guitar and play guitar).
But the importance of respect was not the only part of sibling equality that helped me become who I was today. Knowing there was no favorite (although sometimes I did claim my brother was getting special treatment) allowed me to pursue life without competing for attention or approval from my parents.
There was never this question of who is going to carry on the family name in honor---you or your brother. I know that question comes up in families across America. It did not come up in mine.
VII. The Tradition of Education and Argument
Ralph opens this section by recounting how his father asked him when he came home from school, “What did you learn to today? Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think?”
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