More Solstice Shopping Ideas, and a Rant

My fellow bloggers have come out with some of their own shopping guides here’s a list-

Of Thespiae- Solstice/Boeotian New Year Shopping Guide

Serpent’s Labyrinth- Independent Store Recs

Raise the Horns- Pagan Things Made by Pagans for Pagans

In addition to Ruadhan’s Boeotian calendar- here’s an Anglo-Saxon one

Wild Hunt- Winter Solstice Gift Guide

Several people have given Cara Schulz crap for writing this on Black Friday or criticized it having too much mainstream stuff on it. Still I thought it was a pretty good list, even if I’m not spending much myself this year or any year- how many Pagans do I need to buy gifts for? Not very many! Mainly what I will be probably doing this year is making copies of family photos to distribute. Not sure what to get the in-laws- they have 2 of everything they could possibly need.

I don’t need any more freaking lectures about the Evils of Consumerism & Capitalism. I was raised by hippies- I knew about Buy Nothing Day before Black Friday. My UU church even has a Black Friday service protesting consumerism. I’ve worked retail in the past, hoping I won’t have to in the future, and am definitely on board with the movements to unionize/raise wages and just generally treat the peasants of Walmart, McDonald’s et al. like real human beings. I am trying to get over depression, which I’ve been struggling with for the past year, and get my butt in gear to look for job, and finish learning to drive so I can get my license. My fiance bought a second car, thereby freeing up the old one for me. Those are our Yule presents this year. Before you call us wicked planet destroyers, remember I’ve been a non-driver all this time (age 32)  and while the public transit system is pretty good in the Twin Cities, it does create major barriers to employment. It’s my stubborn streak of left-wing idealism & counterculturalism that holds me back from achieving my goals, and this is continually reinforced by hanging around Pagans. Doesn’t mean I’ll give up on hanging with Pagans but I am trying to fend off the toxic messages. The ghetto mentality. The stick it to the Man mentality. I don’t judge other Pagans who live in poverty, esp. due to disability etc. While I disagree about Sam Webster about many things, I do agree that yes, we need more folks in our community who can support themselves financially and their community– but to do so we need a community has its act together enough to be worth supporting. We should not be making people feel bad for working a job that might not be for a company that meets your political/ethical approval, or for having kids (which capitalism actually *discourages* contrary to what the militant childfree types claim) or for owning a car, when you cannot get by in 90% of this country without a car. Doing those sorts of things does not automatically make you an evil sell-out, claiming that it does not build community.

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