Gimme Gimme 2012

I had a really hard time with Halloween this year.  While some trick-or-treaters were thankful for the free candy, some had little appreciation for the generosity of strangers, as though they were just out to collect what they were "entitled to."  The hardest part for me, though, was seeing kids fight over candy in the days following, or throwing out what they didn't like, and basically just seeing another generation of what all of us are really like.  We want things and we want them now.  And we're American so we just throw things out since we have so much excess.  What do we care about the environment anyway?

We have everything we need and so much more, but we complain about everything.  Weather, politics,  money, people, the stuff we have or don't have.  We are impatient.  This impatience, combined with our greed of pleasure, is so costly.  We are a nation plagued by debt.  Instead of long term planning and saving up for things, we'd rather apply for credit cards and loans, losing our financial freedom.  This ruins people's lives and hurts families.

In addition to the financial consequences of this gimme-gimme-now mentality, there is a sadder one still.  It is something that tries to keep itself secret but is gradually being found out in recent years.  It is something so awful that you would like to think that everyone, upon hearing about it, would be outraged at the thought of supporting such a thing.  I am talking about modern-day slavery.  We may not own slaves today as we once did, but we all take part in modern-day slavery in some way, whether we realize it or not.  Every time we buy something, we are voting for it.  Food, clothing, electronics, etc.  Just about everything we buy is touched by slavery, that is to say, fellow human beings who are being exploited in some way.

So, getting back to Halloween specifically... Children are kidnapped from their families to work cocoa plantations where they are physically abused or worse.  The plantation owners cannot afford to pay regular workers because they are not even being paid fairly for their product, which is why they resort to child slavery in the first place.  And so big chocolate companies around the world get their cocoa cheap, but they make a crazy profit.  They make goodies for us to eat and hope we don't ever find out what the real cost of our indulgence is.  Because as long as they are making money, they don't really care.

Think about it... For us, treating our kids to a fun, candy bar-filled holiday is not all that expensive.  We can easily drop $10 or $20 on a big bag of chocolate candy so that our kids can have a good time.  But what if the tables were turned?  What if our children were being kidnapped and brought to some other country, forced to work in dangerous conditions for the majority of their childhood, while others profited from their toil?  It's sad to think that Halloween is geared towards children, and yet there are children not even having a childhood at all because all we want to do is stuff our faces.

We can't imagine giving up chocolate.  So we don't.  The ultimate tragedy, to me, is telling people about slavery in chocolate and watching them completely write it off like some problem that is too big to fix.

You don't have to fix anything.  You don't have to do anything really.  All you have to do is recognize that by purchasing commercial/mainstream chocolate products, you are hurting someone else.

And then put that product you're looking at back on the shelf.  Don't buy it.  Just... don't.

That's it.  Don't endorse Hershey's, Mars, Nestle, or any other big chocolate names.  Do a little research.

I know.  It might sound difficult to give up your precious chocolate.  I had to do it, too.  I mean, how could I not after learning about the child slavery?  But it got easier.  I eventually learned what chocolate I could buy.  And I don't depend on pleasure from chocolate as much as I used to.  I get more satisfaction now knowing that I am not taking part in someone else's pain.

So yeah... had a hard time this year.  Seeing the lack of appreciation for what we have, the cost of our impatient greed, and the suffering of others ignored.

Still trying to stay positive in this crazy, tragic world.  God is still in control.  And he is good.

Here I am again

I was starting to realize that my Facebook status is not the place for some of my thoughts.  Mostly because my thoughts tend to be a little too complex for a simple venue like that.  But there are things I feel like documenting and have not been.  Then I remembered this blog.

I had written it off for a time, I know.  And I didn't think I would be coming back to it.  But here I am.  This was always my personal blog.  Why should I try to recreate what I have already established?  And who knows... maybe one day I will go back and read all that I've been trough.  Things I used to think about.  Whatever.  Or maybe my kids -if God gives us such a responsibility- will one day want to read it.

In any case, I'm back.