Monday, August 11, 2014

Seeded Sandals

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 People have been buying shoes in pre-made sizes for many centuries, and even "mass production" of sorts has been around for a few hundred years (at the rate of one pair of shoes every couple of hours). Back in the 1800's, a pair of shoes cost a day's pay or more ($1, or about $27 in today's money). They were always made of high quality materials like leather. Even if worn to work they would last a couple of years. Sunday shoes would last a decade.

Nowadays, we have a lot of choice when it comes to our shoes. You can buy a pair of flip-flops from Wal-Mart for $5, which will last you one season if you're lucky. You can buy a pair of sandals for $20 at Pay-Less, which were probably made in the same factory but will maybe last you two seasons due to slightly different materials. Or, you can buy a $400 pair of Prada sandals which will probably last forever... but will likely only last until the Next Big Thing. All of these shoes are likely produced in factories where workers are subject to conditions and paid low wages unimaginable to the majority of the US workforce.

Price is not always an indicator of quality, and it certainly is not an indicator of the ethics behind the brand.

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Our economy is one where wages are kept low enough and prices are kept high enough that most people can't afford anything but the bottom-shelf crap from Wal-mart. I realize that. This post is not for you.

But if you're one of the many people lucky enough to be reading this on your very own computer, you can probably afford yourself a little 19th century luxury: shoes made by fairly-paid people out of high quality materials.

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Likely, you have been convinced that "Low low prices!!" are all you can afford, but that's a kind of false scarcity designed to force you buy many pairs of shoes more frequently.

I am not immune to this. I can't tell you how many times I've been suckered into buying two pair of shoes because it was "Buy one get one free", and neither of them were bearable on my feet for more than an hour or so. Or, if they were, I would eventually come across a documentary or a petition to sign and LO AND BEHOLD there were my shoes causing misery for thousands of real human beings and providing a third Mercedes for another one somewhere else.

And that's where Seeded comes in.

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They're made in Tanzania, a place my friends (and founders of this company) have lived in, and whose occupants they have gotten to know intimately. The company is run by locals and is filled with local artisans who hand-sculpt and bead these sandals. The leather comes from nomadic herders, and the beads come from a fair-trade factory in eastern Europe.

This is actually the first time I have ever worn leather shoes. It feels so amazing. I'm never going back to cheap crap ever again!!

So do yourself and the rest of the world a favor: invest in a high-quality pair of shoes you can be proud to wear.

Here is an end-of-summer coupon code for you, readers, good until the end of the month: "august"! This will give you 30% off. They've got many different styles and colors; have fun shopping!

P.S. I normally wear an 8, and I wear a 9 in these!

Thanks to Caroline and Tony for being amazing and starting this company.

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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Checking in with yourself

Let's do an exercise.

Get out a piece of paper, and write "ME" in the middle. Now, around you, write down the names of major people in your life, and major things or activities in your life (like a job, an illness, a hobby).

Now, draw arrows going to and from these things. A full arrow means a lot of energy/support is going/coming, and a dotted arrow means a little energy/support is going/coming.


This is a great exercise to do when you are feeling overwhelmed and you don't know why. It's also a great exercise to do when you know you have to cut SOMETHING in your life, because you just don't have energy for it all, but you can't decide what makes the cut.

Here is mine for an example:

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So if we do the math, we get 4 "incoming" and 5 "outgoing" (I count the dotted arrows as half a point, and the full arrows as a full point). Aha! Now I see why I'm so stressed out. I'm operating at negative 1. There are more things in my life draining me of my energy than supporting my well-being.

Let's evaluate them one at a time, to see if there's anything we can do about it.

-Ash and I mutually support each other. Don't want to make any changes there!

-Luca, while being cute and being my son whom I love, is almost 3 and takes a good bit out of me. I don't think there's any changing that relationship for a while.

- My parents ask very little of me, maybe a phone call now and then, a few photos of their grandson... but they help me a whole lot. They buy me groceries when they come visit, and they take Luca for a weekend (or a whole week!) so Ash and I can sleep in.

-Ash's mom sends us money so Luca can go to Montessori school. She provides emotional support for Ash. She asks for very little in return, just a phone call every week, a visit once per year, and regular photo updates of her grandson.

-My siblings... right now my sister is pregnant, and while I don't help her nearly as much as I want to because I live an hour away, for a while she is going to need more support than she can give. And that's ok. My brothers don't ask anything of me and I don't ask anything of them, right now.

- Work. I work more than 40 hours per week, but still do not make enough money to pay for everything in my life on my own. There isn't much I can do about that for a while, until I gain more experience. I already have recently upgraded to a job with health insurance, paid time off, and all those lovely luxuries. It's amazing that it's still not enough, but what else can I do??

So it looks like I'm pretty stuck here. The only option is to add another element... something that takes NOTHING from me, but gives me plenty.


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Maybe there's a free/cheap yoga class? Or a meditation session? Or a few bike rides a week? I have no creative outlets in my life at the moment, in addition to no hobbies and no exercise.

I'm glad I did this exercise, I was feeling confused about what my life was lacking, being blinded by achieving the short-term goal of obtaining a better job.

What does YOUR diagram show?


EDIT: I completely forgot to mention that this exercise is adapted from something I read in a book... but I can't remember which book, because I got it from the library. It might have been this one, but either way, this book has similar ideas and is very helpful:

The Mindful Way Through Anxiety