I received a mass e-mail from Anne Feeney, an activist & musician I admire, the other day and she mentioned the following in here summary of 2007
“As most Americans are wallowing in stuff right now, I’m looking for ways to simplify my life. If you haven’t visited http://storyofstuff.com this would be a great time to do it. I’m planning a more sustainable 2008.”
So I went to the site and downloaded the movie (link provided below) and watched it last night. Yes it’s a bit depressing but it’s well done and in only 20 minutes they really drive the point home. It’s style reminds me alot of another site I’ve been watching videos on, http://www.commoncraft.com/ and their plain english videos (I recommend ‘Social Networking in Plain English‘ for a good example of a complex idea made simple).
Not sure exactly what I can change to be more sustainable but I’m starting to think about it more. First step is to admit you have a problem, right? Certainly having just unloaded our car after returning from our holiday travels and looking at our overflowing house Emily & I are both very aware of our ‘stuff’ right now. I also keep thinking of the classic George Carlin ‘A Place For My Stuff‘ routine.
So if you’ve got 20 minutes check it out. You can view the introduction on youtube here.
You can download this movie in its entirity from their site. Simply save the link below to your computer (50 MB).
Ok I read a little more before leaving your blog (my kids are not going to appreciate MOm staying up all night ;0) ) I just had to comment. I got this (The story of stuff) in my email a couple days ago and the woman who sent it is so fired up she is organizing all sorts of action to improve recycling efforts in our little rodeo town. I got inspired to get on our local “freecycle” site and clear out my house. I think I went a little overboard with trying to simplify our home… apparently the rest of the family DOES think a couch is a necessity. (and my forty year old butt is tending to agree with them)
Melanie EFP