Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

This story unravels my thoughts and stitches together my ideas into a palpable mess. This story is about the concept of youth and innocence.

Today I took a sewing machine out of a dusty box that has been stored in my closet since 2009. Months ago I opened the same dusty box and attempted to teach myself how to sew with the intent to decrease world suck via upcycling fabulous thrift store finds. Those many months ago I failed. I could not begin my eco-friendli(er) alternative to shopping at corporate department stores. Why?

The bobbin, my friends. The bobbin.

There is this step just before you can begin sewing where you must raise the bobbin thread. After repeated failure, I abandoned my ambitious effort and retired that sewing machine back to its home (aka dusty box in the closet).

Today when I released that remarkable piece of technology from its home, the bobbin thread was raised in 30 minutes (thanks to the Googling and logic skills of my partner).

This sewing machine reminded me of a journey I recently began to better understand how food gets to our tables and how clothes get into our closets.

By the time our things enter our lives they have encountered possibly hundreds of human hands, traveled thousands of miles, and created environmental and economic ripple effects.

I was 18 years old when I discovered the relationship between corruption, hatred, greed and globalization. When I realized Christopher Columbus was a colonizer and war = death. Consequently, I was pinned down for 3 [long and complicated] years by harsh realizations, intensive critical thinking, self-reflection, and severe bouts of cynicism. Seeing and learning about extreme poverty, genocide, colonization, and a host of other prominent social issues was…awful. However, my 18-year affair with ignorance (or innocence) allowed me maintain a semblance of safety, happiness, and fearlessness. A privilege I am grateful for. 

Many people, young people, do not/cannot hold onto innocence for 18 years. Many children, teenagers, and young adults forgo “traditional” childhoods full of play, imagination, and learning, to sew garments in sweatshops and pick fruits and vegetables in sunbaked fields. Globalization paved a path for capitalism to dominant foreign markets. And globalization demands the production and overconsumption of things.

In general, humanity values innocence. But we do not always do a good job of protecting innocence [at all stages and ages of life]. So, globalized capitalism has made humans further guilty of destroying innocence.

Be mindful of who made your clothing and picked your fruits and veggies; of how goods get to your closet and table.

Until next time, folks!