Salt Tag
Tagged again. And, again, I'll put my own twist on it. (Just a little salt, okay?)
Al Hsu is talking about doing something meaningful with $100. One could say he's asking us to be the salt of the earth...to season the difficult places with love and compassion.
The question is what would you do with $100, if you could. Especially if you could team it up with other people's $100?
I would try to get a local dry cleaner to change over to wet cleaning (I've heard that these mom-and-pop shops don't always have the money to make such big changes).
Dry cleaning is so highly toxic...for the air we breathe, for the people who wear the clothes on which the chemicals persist. This is an issue that affects both rich and poor, though they don't often know it. And, oddly enough, it affects the poor because of location (more urban... air emissions) and the rich because of privilege (they are the ones wearing the dry-cleaned clothes.)
Yeah, I know. Maybe it would seem more vital if I bought 100 cups of soup for 100 poor people. I guess this is where we see how individual passions get us working on all aspects of life, each important in its own way.
Photo of watercolor with salt, by L.L. Barkat. Based on a little assignment from SoulPerSuit
NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:
Salt of the Sky (on my other blog)
Ode to Ironing
posted by L.L. Barkat at 5:06 PM
14 Comments:
Now I have another reason never to buy "dry clean only" clothes.
Your picture is nice. Can I tell you a secret? I was never ANY good at watercolor. Shhh... don't tell anyone.
You have a good point about what you said about individual passions. Most change occurs on a "micro" level, rather than a "macro" level.
Oprah did this on her show one of the times I watched it this year. I have to say, it was pretty powerful what change people incurred with 100 dollars.
I had no idea dry cleaning was like that. The funny thing is that I refuse to buy anything that is dry cleaned already because I refuse to waste the time and money on it :)
I love how you think outside the box, I am the same way. Now I am sitting here thinking about what I would do with that 100 dollars.. interesting.. :)
I had no idea.
But if they all change to "wet cleaning," which I'm assuming is the same thing as my laundry machine, what happens to the items I have that have to be dry cleaned (or can I ignore that, like I do for some of them).
Yes, I am just that selfish that I asked that question.
Nice watercolor! How do you like the soul pursuit? It looks SO interesting to me. I'm afraid I'm not creative enough to try it myself, but would love to hear an update on how it's impacting you -- both creatively and spiritually.
that is why i do the dreaded task of laundering and ironing my hubby's dress clothes instead of sending them to a dry-cleaner's. i've never heard of wet cleaning...what is that? and lovely watercolor, by the way.....
What a beautiful sentiment about our individual passions. If everyone in the world cared just about my passions, what a dull place it would be. And to think the Lord gives us these desires . . .
Love the water color painting. I'm going to work on mine tonight!
Craver... okay, I won't tell. And, btw, I'm just an amateur too.
Andrea... I like this observation. It's good to remember, in a world where we often feel too small to make a difference.
Stephanie... Brava! Better for you anyway.
Heather... they have special machines that can control the level of humidity. It's not just a big washer, though I guess it sounds like that. Never selfish... you should have the facts you need.
Lllama... I like SPS very much. I haven't done any art in years (besides computer), so this is opening me back up. So, I'm not too good at it, but that is also a good spiritual lesson while we're working on the Sermon on the Mount... which is about an upside down kingdom where the strong and great aren't the "best" anyway.
Blue... see Heather above for answer. Thanks for the compliment.
Charity... make sure you put the salt on it while it's quite wet. Though, I had fun just piling it on in the dry spots too, sort of collage-like, since I knew I was going to photograph it (also, the big raindrop things aren't glued down... so they cast a shadow... very cool.) I'm going to post the one I took with a flash on Green Inventions tomorrow... it's an amazing difference!
You are right. We have all our little areas we would spend a $100. I am not sure what I would do with it, to be honest...Maybe by Bibles for Iraq?
Dry-Cleaning - don't buy any clothes that are only for dry-cleaning - okay not any more -- too expensive to keep them clean...
This is such an intriguing concept, and totally do-able for people who really want to give faith a shout. Here's my idea for $100: I would ask 20 people, all separately, if I could buy them coffee in exchange for conversation. Then, when we sat down with that coffee and conversation, I would ask them to tell me about their lives and what makes them come most alive. This, after attending the conference in Maryland a couple weekends ago and realizing my life's purpose statement is to "ennoble the unique texture of the human soul." As I said on Al's blog, I'm still trying to decide if I would have the guts to approach strangers in Starbucks with this offer. Besides being totally freaked out at the thought of being harangued for it, I also know it might come across as presumptuous for me to expect complete strangers to pour out the depth of their lives to another complete stranger. But then again, I often think that what people most desire is just to be heard and seen.
I love Christianne's idea. Somebody posted a similar comment on Dave Zimmerman's Loud Time blog about getting coffee with people, but that sounded more like just hanging out with friends - if it was more about hearing the stories of total strangers, I missed it. Anyway, I hope you go for it, Christianne - I think we'd all love to hear what happens with it!
I did not know this...see you learn so much by reading! :)
I like the idea of teaming up with other people. I was watching Oprah one time and it was amazing to see how if people teamed up the money would multiply like crazy.
Thanks, Al. The idea has been sticking to me like glue since last night when I thought of it. Shoot. I guess that means I have to muster up courage and defy fear -- and maybe just depend a little more on God's power to transcend my smallness -- and perhaps go for it. I will definitely let you guys know what happens if I do!
There were two, at least, different 'green' dry cleaning methods out there, but some were (in 2004 when I last needed one) only in certain states.
There are links to maps of hazardous sites the government has to clean up. . .gas stations and dry cleaners are the most prevalent businesses listed. I already avoided dry cleaning because I am sensitive to chemicals and odors, but seeing the list of hazardous sites was scary! Thanks for the reminder, I am going to add drycleaning to my list of posts to do in the future.
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