If you want to enjoy some good company and a chance to help your neighbor, here’s one of many opportunities the season offers (thank you Phil Edmonds)…

16th Annual Buy Nothing Day Coat Exchange

Thinking globally, acting locally.

The Providence 16th annual Buy Nothing Day Coat Exchange takes place Friday November 23rd 10AM-1PM on the State House lawn, opposite Providence Place mall (rain/snow site Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 15 Hayes St. on north side of mall).

Buy Nothing Day began in 1992 by Adbusters Media Foundation in Vancouver, Canada, as a way to resist the advertising industry that abets over-consumption by causing people to feel unfulfilled with what they have. Since then, Buy Nothing Day has evolved into a

global phenomenon creating awareness of how entangled we are in the web of consumerism.

One may ask: “will it really make any difference if I buy nothing on the November 23 ?” If more and more people join the millions worldwide who do observe Buy Nothing Day, then the answer is yes. A quote from Hope’s Edge by Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe helps put this into perspective.

What we choose to buy, where we choose to shop, even whether we choose to be part of campaigns…all this is not a homage to some weighty obligation; it’s a celebration of the world we want…My choices as a consumer used to feel so small, but now I’m convinced they have real power. Together we are a sleeping giant and, awakened, we can really stir things up.

While critics of the day charge that Buy Nothing Day simply causes participants to buy the next day, Adbusters state that it “isn’t just about changing your habits for one day but about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste.”

Another focus of Buy Nothing Day is to “stir things up” – with a clear message that we no longer will be duped by the endless advertisements telling us the way to happiness. People are beginning to question this consumer-globalized economics way of life realizing we are not as happy as we thought we were, and as a result, are thinking more and taking steps in daily living where quality, rather than quantity, is the priority.

With global warming, along with the depletion of some of our natural resources and the loss of many species of life as a result of over-consumption, our planet is at a breaking point, and it is time to face up to it. Let’s think globally and act locally. On Friday November 23rd stop by the State House lawn in a show of solidarity for Buy Nothing Day. If you have a winter coat to donate, please drop one off; if you need a coat, come pick one up.

More on this at Rhode Island’s Future from Greg Gerritt

And Bob Plain say that Americans would like to save the tinsel until after Thanksgiving.