Jennie Allen, one of my favorite authors/speakers, recently posted this on Instagram:
Her main point was that we are all in an incredibly gray area of life where no good options exist. We’re making dozens of impossible decisions every day. The most common one is this: go out and potentially risk your (and others’) physical health or stay home and definitely risk your (and others’) mental and emotional (and sometimes physical) health? It seems like no matter the decision, there are risks and problems with every solution.
It’s like we dumped all those big, gray clouds that hover over Seattle onto our lives and now we’re all trying to swim our way out. Yes, I know I just said we’re trying to swim in clouds. My analogies are breaking down because things are very confusing right now, OKAY? Gosh.
It’s exhausting.
Years ago I wrote a post about how I have a moral dilemma every single time I try to buy eggs. (Actually, having now made some friends in the agriculture world this is a bit simpler, but the point still stands.) My generation, and now most of our country, has been caught between doing what we are told is right, and doing what is possible or sustainable. We face a lifetime of little, impossible decisions, because, thanks to the internet, we have knowledge of the way things work.
Seriously, y’all. EXHAUSTING. Like, there should be a more extreme word for it. Make one up for me, please, Mr. Webster. Thank you.
For instance: I am in need of some new workout clothes. Simple, right? I can hop on Amazon and order something in 3 clicks, and it will arrive at my door in 2-5 days. Modern convenience done right.
However, as I’m browsing, I’m noticing that most of the options in my price range are not made in countries that guarantee safe and humane working practices. I’m not comfortable wearing clothes that might have been made by a slave, so I decide to leave Amazon and hop on over to a brand I see advertised all the time as an American brand (they literally have American flags on a lot of their stuff. For the record, I don’t need things to be made in America, just made ethically.) I go to the FAQs to see where their products are made. It does not say (or at least I couldn’t find it, but I’m pretty good at finding things like this.)
The website does have an “About Us” video which seems like it might help, so I click on that. The video expresses (multiple times) that this brand is for the “modern savage.” Oh boy. We’ve entered into a whole other moral swimming pool of mud clouds. Wanting to fact-check my instincts, I do a quick google search: “Is the term savage racist?”
Short answer: yeah, it’s not great. I’m not going to explain that here because it’s not the point, but here’s a great video on why certain words are important for some of us to avoid.
Okay, so now not only do I not know if slaves are making this clothing, but I also don’t know if I want to support a company that doesn’t know (or maybe care) that they’re ignoring the history and complexity of our country and a whole people group?
I close my laptop and decide, yet again, to make do with two pairs of workout pants. Which means I have to do laundry more often, which takes time, and laundry detergent, and electricity, and………..
See what I mean? This is beyond exhausting.
Okay, Rambly McRambleson, get to the point.
My point is this: we’re all exhausted, and most of us are trying to make good and wise decisions, but there are no perfect choices. Or if there are perfect choices it takes more time and energy than we have to figure out what those perfect choices are.
So. Can we be kind to each other as we swim together in the murky clouds? Can we share wisdom and solutions when we find them, in gracious ways?
And seriously if you can tell me where to buy ethically made, non-racist branded workout clothes, you’d really be helping a sister out.
Leave a Reply