Simpler Living Weekly Nudge

10/1/18

Consumer Christmas Counter-Offensive

We’re beginning our Non-Consumer Christmas Campaign early this year. Since SLW! Podcast began in 2013, we’ve had a short series the last two months of the year reprising audio from an edition of “Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?”

This year we begin this month and extend the series for four months, issuing a new episode the 15th of each month.

“WHOSE Birthday?” is the Advent-Christmas annual for individuals, families and congregations or groups that at one time was published on paper. Now all editions are free online.

SLW! (and its predecessor Alternatives) has been countering the consumer assault on faith since 1973. But our mission is not just limited to Christmas. Christmas is just the most glaring example of replacing true meaning in life with stuff. It goes on all year–at other holidays, rites of passage and everyday.

This is not part of the “putting Christ back in Christmas” that gets activated when people say “Happy Holidays” or print “Merry Xmas.” For us that shallow thinking misses the big picture of the grotesque control of our lives by consumerism. (BTW, X is the Greek letter Chi, the first letter of Christ. X does not mean nothing as the fundamentalist preachers try to guilt us to think.)

In the now 30 annual editions of “Whose Birthday?” we use gentle reminders and helpful tips and Biblical reflections and family activities, not lectures nor condescending judgments. We do not propose changing the entire capitalist system that depends on overconsumption and debt. We are not that deceived. We try to show how each one of us can resist, non-cooperate in the system for our own health and that of those around us… our families, friends and congregations.

Technical note: The SHOW NOTES for each episode are extensive. You can listen to and/or read any/all the items in all four episode whenever your like by following the links. So, you can binge or wait for each episode to be released.

• WHOSE Birthday? part 1 
• Our Daily Simpler Living Nudge
  • Month 10: Sustenance // Week 1: Food || Week 2: Recipes (from Developing Countries) & Food Preparation || Week 3: Sustainable Agriculture, Organic Farming || Week 4: Gardening
• SLW! Blog Index | SLW! Podcast Index
• SUBSCRIBE to SLW! Podcast for free through iTunes, Stitcher.com or your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to SLW! Blog. Click “+Follow” at lower right of blog post, enter a name and email address. Welcome!
• Non-Conform-Freely Celebrations: Months 9-12
• Check out a few of SLW! thought-provoking, timely resources that might meet your personal, family or congregational/group needs. They’re all FREE. Visit Seasonal/Thematic Resource Index

What Others Are Doing – So Much Help! – Latest Posts

I gladly pass along links from simple living bloggers, podcasters, coaches and others. Some faith-based, some not. You needn’t read them all. Choose just FIVE links to investigate. COMPLETE LIST (Monthly Digest). For links to earlier entries, check the previous SLW! Weekly Digests or Monthly Digests.

What’s Happened

• Another Worthwhile Resource The Overpopulation Podcast from. . .
  

  World Population Balance – sustainable world and US population  http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/

• Podcast Episode: Jay Moses–How a Local Church Invites in Multiple Faiths to Influence One Another
• Climate Crisis Drivers: Overpopulation and Overconsumption
• Why We Podcast–We truly believe in the missions of SLW! and Jubilee OneEarth Economics! The mainstream corporate media — left, right or center — exist to sell us more stuff. Though we are only the tiniest whisper, we cannot stop offering an honest alternative to that MultiEarth message. There is no Planet B. Here’s a list of worthwhile media. And even more.
• Our Daily Simpler Living Nudge
  • What It Is / How It Works / How to GET It – Subscribe by sending NUDGE to SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com. / How to SHARE It
• 10 Tips for a Simpler, More Meaningful Celebrations 
• Healthy Political Practices & Spiritual Disciplines  // Banishing Fake News  READ MORE // Simple Living SANITY // READ MORE
• Previews of Simple Living Blogs, Podcasts and Sites // Collaborators & Champions
• Recent Responses to SLW! media
• Simpler Formats for 2018–The complete SLW! Monthly Digest on the SLW! site features the latest posts from colleague organizations and is updated weekly. Simpler Living Weekly Nudge will feature offerings from SLW! It comes as your free subscription to  SLW! Blog. The Daily Nudge comes by email (send NUDGE to SimpleLivingworks@yahoo.com) or by Twitter @GeraldIversen. Choose the options that work for you.
• Subscribers to SLW! Podcast also receive The Common Good Podcast (TCGP)–which I produce and co-host–on the 1st of the month. Likewise, subscribers to TCGP will receive SLW! Podcast on the 15th as a BONUS. So, SLW! Podcast subscribers will continue to receive two episodes per month. This makes good sense since the missions of both SLW! and Jubilee OneEarth Economics are so complementary and the two work together closely. Your comments on these changes are welcome.

Podcast Reminder

You can access all SLW! podcast audio and the show notes at SimpleLivingWorks.org (then click window #3). Complete Episode Index. Listen through your computer, iPod, iPad, iPhone (or equivalent).

SUBSCRIBE through iTunes, Stitcher.com or your favorite podcast service. To SUBSCRIBE to email notices, click Comments at the bottom of Show Notes, then check ‘Notify me of new posts by email.’ Please rate us in iTunes and leave a review.

Send us your email address to receive the free monthly SLW! eNews. Remember to like us on Facebook. Urge your friends to do the same. Do your friends a favor. Share our blog and podcast.

Like SLW! on Facebook. | Follow us on Twitter. | Follow us on Pinterest. Share your thoughts on our podcast and blogs. Email SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com, leave a message on our Facebook page or on the SLW! blog.

Peace, Gerald “Jerry” Iversen, Chief SLW! Activist

Copyright: Creative Commons non-commercial attribution share-alike license.

Through social media, we extend the mission and resources of the non-profit organization Alternatives, 1973-2011.

Now: 7+ billion . . . . . 2100: 3 billion

Simpler Living Weekly Nudge

9/22/18

Another Worthwhile Resource

The Overpopulation Podcast from. . .

World Population Balance – sustainable world and US population

Consumer Christmas Counter-Offensive

We’re beginning our Non-Consumer Christmas Campaign early this year. Since SLW! Podcast began in 2013, we’ve had a short series the last two months of the year reprising audio from an edition of “Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?”

This year we begin this month and extend the series for four months, issuing a new episode the 15th of each month.

“WHOSE Birthday?” is the Advent-Christmas annual for individuals, families and congregations or groups that at one time was published on paper. Now all editions are free online.

SLW! (and its predecessor Alternatives) has been countering the consumer assault on faith since 1973. But our mission is not just limited to Christmas. Christmas is just the most glaring example of replacing true meaning in life with stuff. It goes on all year–at other holidays, rites of passage and everyday.

This is not part of the “putting Christ back in Christmas” that gets activated when people say “Happy Holidays” or print “Merry Xmas.” For us that shallow thinking misses the big picture of the grotesque control of our lives by consumerism. (BTW, X is the Greek letter Chi, the first letter of Christ. X does not mean nothing as the fundamentalist preachers try to guilt us to think.)

In the now 30 annual editions of “Whose Birthday?” we use gentle reminders and helpful tips and Biblical reflections and family activities, not lectures nor condescending judgments. We do not propose changing the entire capitalist system that depends on overconsumption and debt. We are not that deceived. We try to show how each one of us can resist, non-cooperate in the system for our own health and that of those around us… our families, friends and congregations.

Technical note: The SHOW NOTES for each episode are extensive. You can listen to and/or read any/all the items in all four episode whenever your like by following the links. So, you can binge or wait for each episode to be released.

• LATEST Podcast Episode: WHOSE Birthday? part 1 
• Our Daily Simpler Living Nudge
  • Month 9: Non-conform Freely // Week 1: Media Literacy || Week 2: Advertising & Public Relations || Week 3: Alternatives to TV, Video Games, Movies, Gambling || Week 4: Marketing
• SLW! Blog Index | SLW! Podcast Index
• SUBSCRIBE to SLW! Podcast for free through iTunes, Stitcher.com or your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to SLW! Blog. Click “+Follow” at lower right of blog post, enter a name and email address. Welcome!
• Non-Conform-Freely Celebrations: Months 9-12
• Check out a few of SLW! thought-provoking, timely resources that might meet your personal, family or congregational/group needs. They’re all FREE. Visit Seasonal/Thematic Resource Index

What Others Are Doing – So Much Help! – Latest Posts

I gladly pass along links from simple living bloggers, podcasters, coaches and others. Some faith-based, some not. You needn’t read them all. Choose just FIVE links to investigate. COMPLETE LIST (Monthly Digest). For links to earlier entries, check the previous SLW! Weekly Digests or Monthly Digests.

What’s Happened

• For Peace Day, Peace Week, and DC Non-Violence Convergence, two-part podcast mini-series with John Dear, peace/non-violence activist and author. PART 1: Responding to Hate, Guns and Bombs with Peace & NonViolence, part 1; PART 2: Making Nonviolence Stronger in a Culture of Violence
• Podcast Episode: Jay Moses–How a Local Church Invites in Multiple Faiths to Influence One Another
• SLW! Podcast #113–Bill Ryerson, part 1: Crises Caused by Exploding Population // part 2: Reducing Population Through Methods That Work //
• Climate Crisis Drivers: Overpopulation and Overconsumption
• Why We Podcast–We truly believe in the missions of SLW! and Jubilee OneEarth Economics! The mainstream corporate media — left, right or center — exist to sell us more stuff. Though we are only the tiniest whisper, we cannot stop offering an honest alternative to that MultiEarth message. There is no Planet B. Here’s a list of worthwhile media. And even more.
• Our Daily Simpler Living Nudge
  • What It Is / How It Works / How to GET It – Subscribe by sending NUDGE to SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com. / How to SHARE It
• 10 Tips for a Simpler, More Meaningful Celebrations 
• Healthy Political Practices & Spiritual Disciplines  // Banishing Fake News  READ MORE // Simple Living SANITY // READ MORE
• Previews of Simple Living Blogs, Podcasts and Sites // Collaborators & Champions
• Recent Responses to SLW! media
• Simpler Formats for 2018–The complete SLW! Monthly Digest on the SLW! site features the latest posts from colleague organizations and is updated weekly. Simpler Living Weekly Nudge will feature offerings from SLW! It comes as your free subscription to  SLW! Blog. The Daily Nudge comes by email (send NUDGE to SimpleLivingworks@yahoo.com) or by Twitter @GeraldIversen. Choose the options that work for you.
• Subscribers to SLW! Podcast also receive The Common Good Podcast (TCGP)–which I produce and co-host–on the 1st of the month. Likewise, subscribers to TCGP will receive SLW! Podcast on the 15th as a BONUS. So, SLW! Podcast subscribers will continue to receive two episodes per month. This makes good sense since the missions of both SLW! and Jubilee OneEarth Economics are so complementary and the two work together closely. Your comments on these changes are welcome.

Podcast Reminder

You can access all SLW! podcast audio and the show notes at SimpleLivingWorks.org (then click window #3). Complete Episode Index. Listen through your computer, iPod, iPad, iPhone (or equivalent).

SUBSCRIBE through iTunes, Stitcher.com or your favorite podcast service. To SUBSCRIBE to email notices, click Comments at the bottom of Show Notes, then check ‘Notify me of new posts by email.’ Please rate us in iTunes and leave a review.

Send us your email address to receive the free monthly SLW! eNews. Remember to like us on Facebook. Urge your friends to do the same. Do your friends a favor. Share our blog and podcast.

Like SLW! on Facebook. | Follow us on Twitter. | Follow us on Pinterest. Share your thoughts on our podcast and blogs. Email SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com, leave a message on our Facebook page or on the SLW! blog.

Peace, Gerald “Jerry” Iversen, Chief SLW! Activist

Copyright: Creative Commons non-commercial attribution share-alike license.

Through social media, we extend the mission and resources of the non-profit organization Alternatives, 1973-2011.

Simpler Living Weekly Nudge

eNews #84

9/15/18

Consumer Christmas Counter-Offensive

We’re beginning our Non-Consumer Christmas Campaign early this year. Since SLW! Podcast began in 2013, we’ve had a short series the last two months of the year reprising audio from an edition of “Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?”

This year we begin this month and extend the series for four months, issuing a new episode the 15th of each month.

“WHOSE Birthday?” is the Advent-Christmas annual for individuals, families and congregations or groups that at one time was published on paper. Now all editions are free online.

SLW! (and its predecessor Alternatives) has been countering the consumer assault on faith since 1973. But our mission is not just limited to Christmas. Christmas is just the most glaring example of replacing true meaning in life with stuff. It goes on all year–at other holidays, rites of passage and everyday.

This is not part of the “putting Christ back in Christmas” that gets activated when people say “Happy Holidays” or print “Merry Xmas.” For us that shallow thinking misses the big picture of the grotesque control of our lives by consumerism. (BTW, X is the Greek letter Chi, the first letter of Christ. X does not mean nothing as the fundamentalist preachers try to guilt us to think.)

In the now 30 annual editions of “Whose Birthday?” we use gentle reminders and helpful tips and Biblical reflections and family activities, not lectures nor condescending judgments. We do not propose changing the entire capitalist system that depends on overconsumption and debt. We are not that deceived. We try to show how each one of us can resist, non-cooperate in the system for our own health and that of those around us… our families, friends and congregations.

Technical note: The SHOW NOTES for each episode are extensive. You can listen to and/or read any/all the items in all four episode whenever your like by following the links. So, you can binge or wait for each episode to be released.

• LATEST Podcast Episode: WHOSE Birthday? part 1 
• For Peace Day, 9/21, and Peace Week, two-part podcast mini-series with John Dear, peace/non-violence activist and author. PART 1: Responding to Hate, Guns and Bombs with Peace & NonViolence, part 1; PART 2: Making Nonviolence Stronger in a Culture of Violence
• Our Daily Simpler Living Nudge
  • Month 9: Non-conform Freely // Week 1: Media Literacy || Week 2: Advertising & Public Relations || Week 3: Alternatives to TV, Video Games, Movies, Gambling || Week 4: Marketing
• SLW! Blog Index | SLW! Podcast Index
• SUBSCRIBE to SLW! Podcast for free through iTunes, Stitcher.com or your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to SLW! Blog. Click “+Follow” at lower right of blog post, enter a name and email address. Welcome!
• Non-Conform-Freely Celebrations: Months 9-12
• Check out a few of SLW! thought-provoking, timely resources that might meet your personal, family or congregational/group needs. They’re all FREE. Visit Seasonal/Thematic Resource Index

What Others Are Doing – So Much Help! – Latest Posts

I gladly pass along links from simple living bloggers, podcasters, coaches and others. Some faith-based, some not. You needn’t read them all. Choose just FIVE links to investigate. COMPLETE LIST (Monthly Digest). For links to earlier entries, check the previous SLW! Weekly Digests or Monthly Digests.

What’s Happened

• Podcast Episode: Jay Moses–How a Local Church Invites in Multiple Faiths to Influence One Another
• Podcast: Grace Gyori, from Christian imperialism to liberation for all–a missionary’s journey
• SLW! Podcast #113–Bill Ryerson, part 1: Crises Caused by Exploding Population // part 2: Reducing Population Through Methods That Work //
• Climate Crisis Drivers: Overpopulation and Overconsumption
• Saying Good-Bye to July & August? In the Western world, most of the months in the first half of the year are names for Roman gods: January for Janus the god with two faces who looks back and forward; March for Mars, the god of war. The latter months are numbers: September = 7; Oct. = 8; Nov. = 9; Dec. = 10. Then why is Sept. the 9th month, Oct. the 10th, Nov. the 11th and Dec. the 12th? July was named for Julius Caesar and August for Augustus Caesar, Roman emperors. They were inserted after the gods, and the numbered months were shoved ahead by two.Likewise, days have been named for gods: Thursday for Thor, Saturday for Saturn, etc. And we’ve gone along with this scheme. Well, not everybody. Some Quakers, a peace church, have refused to use months and days named for pagan gods and for war and empire. Some of them have and continue to use numbers for months. Likewise, indigenous peoples use other names for months, and some countries, such as Poland, use names based on natural phenomena of the seasons.Since we in the U.S. use a form of numerical abbreviation, it wouldn’t be difficult or confusing to be honorary Quakers. 8/8/18 means, not Wednesday, August 8th, but the 8th Day of Month 8. Try it! Be a part of the Fifth Life Standard of Living More with Less — Non-Conform Freely. Do a bit of non-militarism, non-imperialism. (Careful. In Europe they tend to switch the day and month, such as 31/12/18, and throw in 0’s, such as 29/08/18.)
• More Allies–Rita and I visited the Aztec Festival in Salinas, Calif., on Saturday. A couple dozen vendors were selling beautiful handicrafts. While we were there, we were virtually the only Anglos in sight.Besides the group of 50+ Native American dancers and drummers, I had the pleasure to meet Michael, an articulate young adult member of the Brown Berets. The Brown Berets were formed in East L.A. in the ’60’s and are now a national organization protecting the cultural and spiritual traditions of indigenous peoples from the Western Hemisphere. Devoted to non-violence, the Brown Berets welcome people from all backgrounds. They’re devoted to youth outreach, resistance to oppression and other similar causes and tactics. Some chapters, such as Watsonville, Calif., are autonomous and determine their own agendas. The chapter in Salinas is all women. Find out more on Facebook at Watsonville Brown Berets and Salinas Brown Berets. NOTE: the Brown Berets are featured in our 9/1/18 podcast.
• Why We Podcast–We truly believe in the missions of SLW! and Jubilee OneEarth Economics! The mainstream corporate media — left, right or center — exist to sell us more stuff. Though we are only the tiniest whisper, we cannot stop offering an honest alternative to that MultiEarth message. There is no Planet B. Here’s a list of worthwhile media. And even more.
• Our Daily Simpler Living Nudge
  • What It Is / How It Works / How to GET It – Subscribe by sending NUDGE to SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com. / How to SHARE It
• 10 Tips for a Simpler, More Meaningful Celebrations 
• Healthy Political Practices & Spiritual Disciplines  // Banishing Fake News  READ MORE // Simple Living SANITY // READ MORE
• Previews of Simple Living Blogs, Podcasts and Sites // Collaborators & Champions
• Recent Responses to SLW! media
• Simpler Formats for 2018–The complete SLW! Monthly Digest on the SLW! site features the latest posts from colleague organizations and is updated weekly. Simpler Living Weekly Nudge will feature offerings from SLW! It comes as your free subscription to  SLW! Blog. The Daily Nudge comes by email (send NUDGE to SimpleLivingworks@yahoo.com) or by Twitter @GeraldIversen. Choose the options that work for you.
• Subscribers to SLW! Podcast also receive The Common Good Podcast (TCGP)–which I produce and co-host–on the 1st of the month. Likewise, subscribers to TCGP will receive SLW! Podcast on the 15th as a BONUS. So, SLW! Podcast subscribers will continue to receive two episodes per month. This makes good sense since the missions of both SLW! and Jubilee OneEarth Economics are so complementary and the two work together closely. Your comments on these changes are welcome.

Podcast Reminder

You can access all SLW! podcast audio and the show notes at SimpleLivingWorks.org (then click window #3). Complete Episode Index. Listen through your computer, iPod, iPad, iPhone (or equivalent).

SUBSCRIBE through iTunes, Stitcher.com or your favorite podcast service. To SUBSCRIBE to email notices, click Comments at the bottom of Show Notes, then check ‘Notify me of new posts by email.’ Please rate us in iTunes and leave a review.

Send us your email address to receive the free monthly SLW! eNews. Remember to like us on Facebook. Urge your friends to do the same. Do your friends a favor. Share our blog and podcast.

Like SLW! on Facebook. | Follow us on Twitter. | Follow us on Pinterest. Share your thoughts on our podcast and blogs. Email SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com, leave a message on our Facebook page or on the SLW! blog.

Peace, Gerald “Jerry” Iversen, Chief SLW! Activist

Copyright: Creative Commons non-commercial attribution share-alike license.

Through social media, we extend the mission and resources of the non-profit organization Alternatives, 1973-2011.