30 Days of Nothing

I'm hesitant to call this a Works-for-me Wednesday, because I'm not sure if in the end, it will "work".

Mary, at Owlhaven, pointed me toward a project by Intent, called 30 Days of Nothing. Here's an excerpt from her description of the project:

"For 30 days, my family will buy nothing except our basic necessities. No clothes or books. No movies, no trips to the ice cream parlor. No paper, or pictures, or magazines. No fancy hair gel or take-and-bake pizza. Lattes? Nope. Nothing except what it takes to live. During that month, I will journal our experiences, and blog my thoughts about poverty and hunger and our response to those issues. I'd like to try and identify with some of the "least" (economically) of the world. We will try and live without electricity for a day; eat only rice for a day. Perhaps the family will sleep together in one room for a night - on the floor; or walk six miles one day - the distance some African women walk daily to get clean water.

The goal of this month-long fast is to break the grip of materialism in our hearts and minds. We want to live in gratitude, not discontent; and we want to live with awareness of the great responsibility our affluence has laid on our shoulders."

I've talked about this with my husband. I've brainstormed with my son. And I've argued with my daughter. None of us WANTS to do this. But I feel we must -- partly because of the resistance I'm witnessing.

This shouldn't be that big of a deal. It's one month. We keep all the stuff we already have. Mostly, we're boycotting throw-away spending, like the 69-cent Skittles my kids buy at the grocery store. But the conversations we've had so far have revealed our wicked entrenchment in this materialistic world. And maybe our fear of commitment. You'd think I was asking my eldest to live in a cardboard box (which gives me an idea, actually.)

So at this point, what's working for me is to engage in the discussion, even when it becomes heated. I'm answering a lot of "why" questions and opening our eyes to a world that's so remote to us, it can't be understood. I'm keeping our options open to alter the project throughout the month, empowering my kids to suggest ways to "survive" it, trying hard not to be judgemental about our spoiled selves, and letting go of the shopping reins in these last few days before September 1st. I'm hoping that during the month, some kind of light bulb goes on for someone and an ah-ha moment replaces the resentment and eye-rolling I'm getting right now.

And I'm believing that, like I wrote yesterday on Pass the Torch Tuesday, process is more important than product. If we fail miserably at cutting out the materialism, but succeed in having conversations about important and otherwise ignored subjects, then we'll have succeeded after all.

Risks that may result in failures, but that help to discover truths, are worth taking.

Care to join me?

Carnival of the Vanities is up at Lil Duck Duck. After you're through WFM Wednesday-ing, there are great posts there to keep you busy the rest of the day;)

More 30 Days posts:
Day 1
Week 1
Week 2

For more participants in this project, visit Intent.
Technorati Tag: 30 Days of Nothing