#divesting

This is one of the largest fossil fuel divestments in the world, making up 70% of New York City’s pension assets.

You need a pan for a dish you've never made before. It's $25 on Amazon, but you know that Amazon's business model relies on the exploitation of workers, small businesses, the environment, and, to an extent, you. It's $28 at Target, but Target has its own ethical issues even though its seen as the "good" alternative to Walmart.

You know there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, but you you need a pan. You're committed to making better, not perfect, choices because under capitalism there is no such thing as perfection.

You text two friends, one of them has the pan you need. You borrow the pan. You say thank you, you use the pan. Wash the pan, return the pan, include a doggie bag of the new recipe you made. Your friend doesn't have the reaction to the food you were hoping for, but its fine because they're a great friend, you loved the food you made, and this was overall a positive experience and your friend is just like that sometimes and its fine.

Are you going to need the pan again at a rate where you really need your own pan? Are you sure? You don't already own something that serves the same purpose?

Can you reliably borrow the pan from your friend or do you really need your own pan? Can you buy the pan from your friend? Can you trade one of your plants for the pan? What about the top you don't wear or the heater that's not compatible with your electric grid? What about a loaf of the rosemary sourdough you make really well? What about buying all of their drinks the next time you go out?

If you need to buy a new pan because your friend uses their pan a lot, that's fine. Can you get it from a thrift store? You've lived this long without that pan, think about if you need it right now or if you can spare some time to hunt for it. Can you get it from facebook marketplace? Oh god, can you get it from craigslist?

Ok you can't unburden your friend from the pan, and it's nowhere on facebook marketplace or craigslist. Can you find it at your local grocery store, the one that's employee owned? Can you, god forbid, buy it from the slightly fancy place where it costs $40 but you're like, 90% sure it wasn't made from slave labor? Can you buy it directly from the website of the maker?

#RedSea,#China exporters choose #rail to #Europe:12 d rather than 35-45

foreign #enterprises divesting China

#US consumers excess savings,open to spend at #Christmas:record since 1999

#Israel lobby money to #Biden #Cruz #Menendez #McConnell #Scumer et al

It's that time of life, I suppose.

We're divesting.

We're reorganizing.

We're regrouping.

Call it Spring Cleaning... but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Mostly, it's a reaction, a series of realizations set in motion by the death of Kimmer's uncle and the work involved taking care of the remains of his life. His home. His possessions. His files. His bills. Even his wife, Kimmer's aunt, for whom finding the best Memory Care for her was paramount.

It was a lot of doing. It was a lot of divesting, reorganizing, regrouping. It was a lot of figuring out against the clock.

And it's not lost on us how there's a lesson here. Because having to go through someone else's stuff, ruthlessly making the call about what stays and what goes... you don't have to think too long before you wonder how much of this stuff should he, should they, have let go themselves? And how long ago? Which is barely, barely a hop, skip, and a jump from thinking about what should stay and what should go in our lives. And what should we let go ourselves. Right now. This very minute.

Maybe it's an age thing, too. Because if you own something but haven't seen it, touched it, used it for ten years... that would seem to go high on the list of Things To Let Go.

And there are. A lot of things like that. Especially in storage. Especially in our garage. Even on our shelves. And also as we learn more about ourselves, what we really need in any given moment, as well as an increased willingness to give stuff that might be useful to strangers.

For free.

Not all of it. Some of it.

The rest we're selling. Which adds another layer of judgement to What Stays and What Goes. Which is... How much do we think something of ours is worth to a complete stranger? And...

How much do we care?

So yeah. I've got the OfferUp app, the Craigslist app, and Facebook Marketplace ready to go on my phone. Not that we're gonna put them all of them in play although I suppose many people do. I kind of like the look and design of OfferUp... so we'll start there. With something we're giving away. With something's we're giving away and see how it goes.

It's that time of life, I suppose.

We're divesting.

We're reorganizing.

We're regrouping.