Modern Hippie Mag » Movies

Rock Meets Soul – Nice & Rough

Jaszy McAllister — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:00:57 +0000

Love rock ‘n roll? Yeah, me too. But did you know there are a number of women bellowing out rock and soul as good, if not better than some of the greats that have been in the limelight for ages? With influences from legends like Jimi Hendrix, Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, and Sly & the Family Stone, there are women of color who are epitomizing the spirit of rock ‘n roll in ways that are more than worthy of recognition.

Shelia J. Hardy

Filmmaker and producer Sheila J. Hardy endeavors to do just that in her documentary film Nice and Rough – Black Women in Rock.

Nice and Rough, an Eve’s Lime Production, is a film that seeks to “honor the true spirit of the American dream: the freedom to pursue our goals and not be limited by race or gender.” Featuring the stories and talents of Joyce Kennedy, Siedahh Garrett, Cindy Blackman, Star Cullers (the first and only female to play in the 18-piece P-Funk All-Stars band until she left to start her own rock group) and others, Nice and Rough gives voice to some amazingly talented ladies in a world typically not open to women, let alone African-American women.

Listen to my interview with Sheila Harding to learn more about the film, her production company Eve’s Lime, and her other documentary and commercial projects.

Watch the trailer for Nice and Rough and be sure to stay updated with the production.

Jaszy

Jaszy McAllister is the woman behind the curtain of Modern Hippie Mag. She is also the host for ModernHippieMag.com video and podcast interview profiles and a Green Guru for TheGreenGirls.com. Find her on Twitter, @msjaszy or connect with her on LinkedIn. Read more articles by Jaszy.

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Rock Meets Soul – Nice & Rough is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Cultivating “The Garden”

Steve McAllister — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:00:14 +0000

After the Los Angeles riots broke out in response to the Rodney King trial, thirteen acres of land in South Central LA were converted into a community garden at 41st and Alameda. The land was tilled and cultivated into a thriving garden and source of food mostly by the Hispanics of the community, which make up 67% of the neighborhood. Twelve years later, Councilwoman Jan Perry and activist Juanita Tate of Concerned Citizens of Los Angeles attempted to convert the land into storage warehouses and a soccer field for the community. They story of these 372 farmers and their fight for their community is told in the Academy Award nominated documentary film The Garden.

The film shows both sides of the issue, with most of the time given to the farmers, the legal battles they pursue, and the infighting that unfortunately comes with the ravages of battle. While Jan Perry and Juanita Tate are given fair time to explain their sides of the story, they are without a doubt painted as the villains of the story, showing little mercy or compassion to the immigrants who have found hope in the simple of pleasure of growing their own food. Perry and Tate had already developed another soccer field at the corner of Slauson and Main, an endeavor which took six years and $4.7 million dollars for a level dirt field and a single port-o-potty.

In her defense, before being developed into the largest community garden in the United States, the land was bought by the city to build a garbage incinerator, a move that was stopped by Juanita Tate. Nevertheless, due to using her activist credentials to raise money, she was seen by some of the farmers as a “poverty pimp.” By the end of the film, Tate and her sons are under investigation for misuse of funds.

Of course, Perry and Tate are minor villains. The true enemy of our seed planting heroes is the developer Ralph Horowitz. “In 1986, the city paid Mr. Horowitz five million dollars for the land. In 2003, the City Council agreed to sell it back to him for the same price.” Mr. Horowitz, in turn, offered the land for the selling price of $16.3 million.

In true Hollywood fashion, the farmers band together to raise the money, gaining the support of celebrities like Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Martin Sheen, and Darryl Hannah. Nevertheless, even after the farmers raised over $16 million dollars in less than sixty days and offered to buy the land, on June 13, 2006, police blocked the farmers from entry, arresting several while bulldozers plowed the garden back into dirt. Mr. Horowitz, once agreeing to sell it if the farmers raised the money, said he wouldn’t sell it to them for any price.

Though the parting shots of the dormant land two years after the destruction of the Garden do not offer the happy ending we may have hoped for, the experience actually helped the farmers to carve out a better future for themselves. The city eventually offered the farmers another seven acres in South Central LA to cultivate another community garden, and many of the farmers started an eighty acre garden in Bakersfield, the harvests of which they sell at farmers’ markets around the region.

The majority of the film is in Spanish, but the message is clear in any language. The Garden inspires us to always fight for our rights, to never give up, and to realize the value of community.

Steve McAllister

In addition to serving as Managing Editor and contributor to Modern Hippie Mag, Steve McAllister is an actor, musician, accomplished author and filmmaker. His most recent novel, The McAllister Code is available as an e-book at www.themcallistercode.com. Find Steve on Twitter, @InkenSoul. Read his reviews and articles here.

Cultivating “The Garden” is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

How Will We Fuel Our Future?

Steve McAllister — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:00:21 +0000

This month Americans celebrated our Independence. As far as we may have come, we still look forward to the day we can celebrate our independence from oil. We know that it is a pollutant, it’s toxic, it’s cancer causing, it’s not renewable, it’s a dirty industry through and through, and of course, the harsh reality is that we will one day run out of it… possibly sooner than we may think. Personally, I’m not looking to just decrease our addiction to foreign oil alone. It is not foreign oil that is currently spewing into the Gulf of Mexico and endangering the lives of millions of species and the livelihoods of millions of people. I look forward to the day when we are independent from ALL oil.

Fortunately, this dreamy-eyed hope of mine is actually a possibility. As featured in the film Fuel, which has recently been made available through hulu.com biodiesel is on the rise again. After a surge in popularity and a shining offering of hope, the possibility of biodiesel as a sustainable fuel source was brought into question after a few slanderous articles were released noting the deforestation that takes place in order to grow the crops to create it. However, new technology is emerging whereby biodiesel is being created not only from our waste, which is astoundingly plentiful in our land of the free, but also from algae, the main ingredient used to create crude oil in the first place (without the millions of years and the drilling).

Fuel offers several interesting facts about the oil industry, its ties to our government, and several methods of alternative energy that we can start using today. Did you know that the diesel engine was originally designed to run on corn? Did you know that Henry Ford designed his engines to run on plant based ethanol before Prohibition which was pushed forward by Standard Oil’s John D. Rockefeller, forcing him to switch to petroleum? Produced and directed by New College of Florida alum Josh Tickell, who now runs the Veggie Van Organization, the film offers an often emotional look at the history of our energy use and how we can create a cleaner, more sustainable future.

For the month of July, Modern Hippie Mag will give 100% of the proceeds from the sales of our Organic Cotton T-shirts to the Mote Marine Emergency Oil Spill Relief Fund. Not only will your purchase go toward cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico, it will help spread the message that we demand “Alternative Energy Now.” It is all too easy to sit back on our haunches and allow our government and corporate America to make the rules. As Gandhi said, “When the people lead, the leaders will follow.” Show your leadership and start demanding clean energy.

Steve McAllister

How Will We Fuel Our Future? is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

No Impact Man

Steve McAllister — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:00:04 +0000

In late 2006, Colin Beavan started a project that changed the way many saw sustainable living. Looking for a topic to write about that had more substance than the historical projects he had been working on while also hoping to have a greater impact on the world around him, Colin endeavored to accomplish this by creating less of an impact on the world around him. For one year of their life, Colin and his family attempted to produce no garbage and no carbon emissions by buying only locally grown foods, no new products, getting rid of their television, traveling only by foot and bicycle, eventually having their electricity turned off, and doing without a number of other modern conveniences that most of us take entirely for granted.

The experiment turned into a popular blog, a book, a documentary film, and a project “to empower citizens to make choices which better their lives and lower their environmental impact through lifestyle change, community action, and participation in environmental politics.” Not only did the experiment produce a media juggernaut, it also taught the Beavan family, as well as many who watched or read about it, that living simply can create a richer, more fulfilling life.

Though I missed it in the theater, I recently watched No Impact Man on DVD and was instantly inspired by the sacrifices the family made and the fulfillment they achieved through their undertaking. For anyone considering ways to live a more sustainable and eco-conscious lifestyle, I highly recommend it. However, one aspect of the film stood out to me in a very poignant way.

After Colin’s experiment gets picked up for a story in the New York Times, the media circus begins and his No Impact journey gets a great deal of attention. What got me was not so much the negative mail and comments he got from consumers hell bent on doing whatever they want with no regard for the environmental regulations and no patience for anyone offering any sort of sacrificial lifestyle, but the environmentalists who barraged him with letters telling them that his radical experiment was making them look bad. While we are facing global warming and climate change, diminishing natural resources, out-of-control corporate greed, and more toxins in our society than we can wave an aerosol can at, how can anyone, especially someone with an inkling toward eco-consciousness, fault another person for trying something radical?

One of the arguments that a critical environmentalist made was that the No Impact experiment would make people take the environmental movement less seriously. However, the success of the experiment speaks for itself. Not only did the Beavan family make it through their year and prove that we don’t need to live as wastefully as our society has become, but they also proved that living simply can help to bring a family closer together without the trappings associated with a consumerist lifestyle.

I have to applaud Mr. Beavan and his family for doing what many of us are loathe to do and for standing out as a shining example that giving up what we think we can’t live without isn’t as hard as we make it out to be.

Check out the trailer for No Impact Man and pick up a copy of the book or DVD in its 80% post consumer recycled packaging.

Steve McAllister

No Impact Man is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Transitioning to a World Without Oil

Steve McAllister — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:00:26 +0000

With the common sense knowledge that the oil we so take for granted today will one day run out, a new movement has been forming to start finding ways to transition out of our dependence on oil. Not just foreign oil, but oil altogether. Seeking renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, fewer cars on the road, and healthier lives, the Transition movement is starting at the grassroots level in towns and cities all over the world.

“The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities.”

As founder Rob Hopkins puts it, the end of the Oil Age is seen by many “as the Great Opportunity, the chance to build the world they always dreamt of.” Because of this, he has devised the “‘Energy Descent Action Planning (EDAP)’, which works with a community to vision how they see their town 20 years in the future, in a positive way, and then backcast from then to now.”

I learned about the Transition movement through one of the talks on TED (which we will hopefully be sharing more frequently here in the future), but they have also created a documentary called In Transition 1.0. We are including them both here for you. Enjoy and imagine a great future!

Transition 1.0: The Movie

In Transition 1.0 from Transition Towns on Vimeo.

Steve McAllister

Transitioning to a World Without Oil is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

The Humanity of Avatar

Steve McAllister — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:00:13 +0000

There seems to be an influx of films that are depicting mankind as the villain. As if our greed, arrogance, and disregard for anything we can’t immediately understand have developed into a self loathing that is trickling into our art forms. The question is, “Are we deserving of such judgment?”

In three films this year, Planet 51, Battle for Terra, and now Avatar, humans have descended upon peaceful clans of aliens to exude their dominance and usually get trampled in the process. I didn’t actually see Planet 51, but the trailer shows the astronaut land in the backyard of an alien barbecue and plant his flag to claim the planet in the name of the good ole US of A. In Battle for Terra, humans invade the planet because they have destroyed Earth and must exterminate the natives to make the atmosphere breathable for themselves. In Avatar, the humans want to uproot the natives for little more than greed over the price of the ore the natives live on top of. Conquest, destruction, and greed. Is this the legacy this generation will leave behind?

I’ve already written about Battle for Terra so I’d like to comment on the themes that come up in the film Avatar. For starters, if you haven’t seen it, go. It’s very rare that I will pay full price for a film, but the spectacle alone was worth it. The motion capture technique that James Cameron developed for the film is nothing short of brilliant. My wife remarked that she found it disconcerting that the film looked so real. She expected to see some hint of CGI, but it is visually flawless. Even the most staunch industrialist will appreciate that. However, that may be all that he appreciates.

In the film, the humans who have set up shop on the planet of Pandora are made up mostly of military types whose sole cause is to retrieve as much of a valuable ore (called Unobtainium with tongue firmly planted in cheek) as possible. A small group of scientists are also there to study the flora and see what other treasures the planet might hold. To achieve their causes, the humans have developed Avatars, hybrids using the DNA of humans and Na’vi, the native humanoids, that serve as vehicles for the minds of select humans so that they can get close to the Na’vi to study them and to find out their weaknesses.

One of the marines manages to infiltrate the natives and through a series of tests, becomes one of them and falls in love. Unfortunately, he has also given valuable intel to the Marine colonel, a career military man who seems to want nothing more than to find an excuse to use his lifelong training and go into battle. Though the scientists try to inform the colonel and the necktie in charge of the operation about the interconnectedness of the planet and how much there is to learn about the web of consciousness the Na’vi share with it, they scoff at the science, sneer at the spiritual, laugh at the sentimental, and move forward with violence and greed.

I truly wish that I could say the film is entirely fantasy, but unfortunately these themes are all to present in our history and modern society. The concept of moving in on an indigenous people to take what we want dates back to before the colonists chased the Native Americans west, to the black gold for which so many people believe we invaded Iraq. From the outlandish markups on pharmaceutical products, the number of companies that use near slave labor and harmful chemicals in their products because they are cheaper, and the fact that our current health plan will allow people to die just because they can’t afford treatment shows how far we will go to increase our profit margin.

A large theme in the film regards seeing other people for who they really are. The natives have a saying, “I see you,” meaning they see to the core of who you really are. When the young marine sides with the natives, his colonel sees him as a traitor to his race, but the audience is supposed to see him as a hero to his principles. As I watched the scourge of industrialism depicted in the film and the harmony of the aborigines as they communed and connected with nature, I had to really consider how I saw humanity.

We were walking to our car down Main Street after the film, and my wife remarked how sad it was that so many businesses had closed. She asked what I thought would bring the economy back. I told her that we needed to find what was truly valuable again. In our capitalist/industrial mindset, we are so prone to cut ourselves off from others in the “us vs. them/I’ll get mine; you get yours” mentality that we lose a bit of the concept of community and interconnectedness. Because we put so much energy into the acquisition of money, we lose sight of what’s of true value. There is value in understanding. There is value in connection. There is value in feeling. There is value in seeing deeper.

I don’t think the message of the film was that humans suck, even though they destroyed their planet and kept looking for new ones to pillage. I think the message was that we need to start seeing through new eyes. We need to see, once again, the value of community. We need to see our connection to one another and the planet upon which we live. There is so much value that we miss simply because our focus is off. It is time to open our eyes.

Steve McAllister

Steve McAllister is an acclaimed author, filmmaker, actor, and musician. In addition to contributing to Modern Hippie Mag, he also writes InkenSoul, a blog focused on literature and information that promotes commerce, charity, creativity, spirituality, and environmental sustainability. Purchase his most recent novel, The McAllister Code as an e-book at www.themcallistercode.com. Find Steve on Twitter, @InkenSoul. Read his reviews and articles here.

The Humanity of Avatar is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Movie Review: Battle For Terra

Steve McAllister — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:00:41 +0000

With pop culture consumed with Avatar fever, I thought it a good idea to revisit a film that hit theatres this summer with much less fanfare, but just as poignant a message. For those who just can’t get enough of eco-conscious aliens, Battle for Terra is now available on DVD or as a download.

Battle for Terra introduces us to a fantastic new world where a race of tadpole-like creatures live in peace among a truly unique landscape (or should I say sky-scape?) unlike anything seen on film before. When the moon is eclipsed by a strange object in the sky, many think that the cross-shaped vessels that emanate from it are gods coming to take them to the next life, waving their arms willingly as they are drawn into the flying spacecrafts and whisked away.

Mala (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) is not so trusting, but when she sees her father snatched up by one of the crafts, she tries to get taken as well. Her attempts get her chased down by one of the ships which she slyly causes to crash, taking the wounded human pilot (voiced by Luke Wilson) home to nurse back to health so that she can get her father back.

The two forge a relationship, of sorts, and the pilot agrees to help the little tadpole get her father back. However, the rest of his kind have other plans. The inhabitants of the spacecraft are the descendants of the last survivors of Earth before it was destroyed in a territorial war against the colonies on Venus and Mars as they fought for their independence. After several generations of floating through space, the humans have found this inhabitable planet to settle on.

The only problem is that the atmosphere won’t support them. As the council looks for a pragmatic solution, the general of the military stages a coup and launches a device that will turn the atmosphere to breathable oxygen for the humans, but will kill the native population.

Beyond the glaring theme of environmental sustainability, the film also offers some unique perspectives on loyalty, sacrifice, diplomacy, and war. The CGI animation is much simpler than Avatar, but what starts out as a truly peculiar little fantasy becomes a philosophically challenging story with a lot of heart. If you missed it in the theater, don’t miss it on DVD or download.

Steve McAllister

Movie Review: Battle For Terra is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Green Your Wedding

Jaszy McAllister — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:00:24 +0000

Wedding Arch designed by Carl Wise

Modern Hippie Mag had the special honor of being guests at an eco-themed winter wedding. Marty and Elizabeth incorporated elegant, yet inexpensive eco-friendly ideas into their “Sticks & Stones” themed nuptials.

From the hand-crafted chair adornments to the simple table centerpieces, this modern bride found ways to show her crafty sense of style with eco-conscious flare.

Wedding arch courtesy of Bee Ridge Florist (www.beeridgeflorist.com), (800) 226-0795.

Green Your Wedding from Modern Hippie on Vimeo.

Green Your Wedding is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Movie Review: HOME

Steve McAllister — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

In celebration of Green Friday, I thought it would be a good time to highlight a little known film that may remind you of how blessed we are to have such a wonderful planet to call home.

I recently stumbled upon a documentary called Home on YouTube and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys living on this planet of ours and would like to extend the experience to future generations. Narrated by Glenn Close, the film begins with a plea to her fellow homo sapiens to listen to the story of the history of the planet, how mankind’s presence and progress have affected it, and then to decide what you want to do with it. What follows is often mesmerizing, sometimes horrific, but essentially hopeful.

The first act covers the development of the planet from its beginning as a lifeless ball of fiery rock to its cooling and the flow of water. As blue/green algae leads the way for plants to absorb the energy of the sun, the Earth continues to evolve as life multiplies and prospers. Act two presents the influence of mankind, partly as a marvelous display of ingenuity and of course, as most recent nature films must, partly as a largely destructive force which has ravaged the earth and contributed greatly to global warming and world poverty. However, Act three offers a ray of hope, short as it may be, as the film demonstrates some of the miraculous ingenuity mankind is developing as we search for forms of alternative, sustainable energy.

Shot largely via aerial view, the film boasts some truly remarkable cinematography, allowing the viewer to truly see things from a different perspective. From herds of elephants to lots full of cars, this view of the world offers such a stark contrast between the organized chaos of nature and the rigid complexity of industry. Incredible footage of the development of Dubai, from its manmade islands to scores of skyscrapers, stands as a testament to western modernity, so far removed from nature yet so dependent upon it.

This film serves not so much as a preachy call to extreme environmentalism, but a lesson in history and a guide for the future. Great insight can be gained from the now extinct tribe of the Rapanui of Easter Island, who formed one of the most brilliant civilizations in the Pacific before exploiting and depleting their natural resources. As the second act brings its dreadful malaise to an end through a series of statistics laid over a somber aria, we are suddenly given a wonderful glimpse of hope through the words, “It’s up to us to write what happens next… Together.” And so act three begins.

“It’s too late to be a pessimist,” Ms. Close repeatedly says as she gives her summation, highlighting the wonderful insights she has seen in humanity and the strides we continue to take to a more just and sustainable future. As devastating as our industrial apathy and selfishness may be to the planet, we are also growing in education and creativity, even to the most remote regions. Though our use of fossil fuels has created great amounts of pollution, we are developing new processes of solar, geothermal, wind, and tidal power.

All in all, Home, produced with the intention of being offered for free, is a great celebration of our planet and a call to arms for those who would protect her resources, preserve her natural beauty, and progress to the next great revolution. With a running time of only an hour and a half, the stunning cinematography and beautiful world music is well worth the time. The film is available for free on YouTube or as an iPhone application.

“HOME is an ode to the planet’s beauty and its delicate harmony. Through the landscapes of 54 countries captured from above, Yann Arthus-Bertrand takes us on an unique journey all around the planet, to contemplate it and to understand it. But HOME is more than a documentary with a message, it is a magnificent movie in its own right. Every breathtaking shot shows the Earth – our Earth – as we have never seen it before. Every image shows the Earth’s treasures we are destroying and all the wonders we can still preserve. “From the sky, there’s less need for explanations”. Our vision becomes more immediate, intuitive and emotional. HOME has an impact on anyone who sees it. It awakens in us the awareness that is needed to change the way we see the world. (HOME embraces the major ecological issues that confront us and shows how everything on our planet is interconnected.)”

Movie Review: HOME is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

What Would Jesus Buy?

Steve McAllister — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:00:46 +0000

This question is asked by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir in the documentary of the same name. Heading into this holiday season during one of the worst recessions this country has seen in awhile, the message of the film could not be more appropriate. As the film opens, scenes of rabid shoppers rushing into stores like the bulls of Pamplona are intercut with Reverend Billy screaming into his bullhorn, urging that you don’t have to buy a gift to give a gift.

The film follows the good reverend and his flock as they cross the country, counting down the days to Christmas, and having a rollicking good time as they comically try to get people to reconsider their shopping habits and rampant consumerism. From his arrest in the Disney Store for preaching that Mickey Mouse is the anti-Christ to him being the first person ever to be banned from Starbucks in California, Reverend Billy and his choir, though they make an amusing spectacle of themselves, are very passionate about their message. Even after their bus is hit by a runaway tractor trailer, sending thirteen of them to the hospital, they charter another bus and continue on their crusade of sermons and songs.

Reverend Billy’s dire warning is for Americans to be wary of the “Shopacolypse”, that learned penchant for consumerism that has caused us to surpass $2.4 trillion dollars in credit card debt, a number that will increase by $100 billion dollars this holiday season. Their hope is that we get back to realizing what is important about the holiday and the relationships that so often take second place to our consumption. As the film points out, the average American spends one hour a week in church and five hours shopping. And while the average 8 year old watches over 40 hours of media programming a week, he only gets about 40 minutes of meaningful conversation with his parents.

Although named the Church of Stop Shopping, that is not entirely their mission. They do understand that people need to purchase items in order to survive. Even members of the choir purchase things occasionally. Nevertheless, when they make purchases, they look for products created in America where the profit goes back into the local community. The film also addresses the plight of local business owners and how many are put out of business by the low, low prices of Wal-Mart, and how the use of slave labor in other countries affects product price points. There is an exhilarating scene in which three teenage girls start to research where their clothes are made and are made aware of the horrible conditions sweatshop workers endure.

Most of these points are only glossed over as the film revels more in the antics of Reverend Billy and his choir. Yet the message is loud and clear as they head into the holiday season. Billy reminds us of the only account in the Bible where Jesus got violent was with the money changers in the temple. Imagine how he would feel today about the rampant commercialization of the celebration of his birth.

The church’s month long journey across the country as they preach the gospel of stop shopping and attempts to exorcise the demons of Wal-Mart culminates in a well timed demonstration down Disneyland’s Main Street on Christmas Day. As Reverend Billy leads the choir through the crowd awaiting the Mickey Mouse parade, he is accompanied by numerous Disney security officers, each echoing the mantra, “You need to stop now.” But Billy is consumed by the power of the spirit of not shopping and is soon arrested by the Anaheim Police. While his flock holds a candlelight vigil for his release, Reverend Billy is seen preaching a more somber and sincere sermon to close out the film.

His final plea is a hope that we can change just a little this Christmas season. He asks that we buy half as much as we did last year, and give twice as much. He reminds us that Christmas is the celebration of a child born who would one day bring us peace. As we head into this season, may we all be a little more conscious of what we are buying, why we are buying it, and at least consider if there might be a better way to show love to our loved ones that does not involve increasing our financial debt.

What Would Jesus Buy? is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.