Of Paupers and Princes

Today I watched a movie featuring a rat. I took each of my dogs for her own walk. I met my husband's uncle, a traveling pastor, and his exceedingly kind wife for the first time. I drank a glass of Merlot. I read an article in The Nation discussing the irrelevance of atheism in carving out a new Muslim identity in the New World**. I contemplated joining the Sierra Club. I ate a plate of leftover lasagna.

What I did not do was purchase anything.

In addition to being the much-touted "biggest shopping day of the year" (vomit) today is also Buy Nothing Day, a loosely organized 24-hour moratorium on shopping designed to stick it to the capitalist running dogs (and, in my case, involved literal running dogs). The crux of Buy Nothing Day is to raise awareness of the greedily excessive nature of American consumer culture and the adverse impact of that culture on our environment - and also our souls, if one trucks with such concepts.

Interestingly enough, MTV (of tits and ass fame) refused to run a paid add publicizing Buy Nothing Day on the grounds that the content was objectionable for their young viewers. Yeeeeeeeah. The add may be viewed here. Be forewarned - there's a remarkable dearth of both tits and ass. Won't somebody think of the children?

** This is what we're being called again, much to my immense amusement. The New World, that is. Not atheists. Although possibly that too.