Home

M I N D F U L Ξ S H O P P I N G

Applying mindfulness to shopping and other consumer acts

Krazy Kommunication

• Jimmy Kimmel explaining Miss Teen South Carolina’s answer to an audience question.
• Andy Dick impersonating George Bush’s “speechialist.”
• A “friend” responding to my request that another friend take the spot of someone (the wife of the head of my office) who isn’t attending her wedding:

I haven’t had a chance to write to you before now. No, it’s *not* okay for you to bring a guest as I politely reminded you before, or to assign someone else a guest. We have a very limited number of seats and are still awaiting all of our RSVPs.

Actually, I’m very surprised that this conversation has even gone this far—there are so many details I have to attend to right now, and I thought I was being very straightforward and courteous.

We understand if you will not be able to attend under these conditions. In fact, I would encourage you not to attend if you are uncomfortable with your original invitation.

Thank you for your understanding.

Perhaps being a bride or groom is like being a Miss Teen USA competitor: so much rides on everything being perfect or nearly so, that one is almost doomed to fail. I’d love to see Andy Dick’s impersonation of an assistant handling correspondence for the bride-to-be who is working 24/7 to coordinate all the details of the most public event of her life

*

A Note to New Visitors

The symbiotic relationships that develop between the patrons and owners of small businesses are, as we all know, characteristic of—and essential to—the life of neighborhood communities. When I write about a business, service, or product, I am hoping that people who read about it will become interested enough to try it. Why? Handmade items, businesses in which you are greeted by the owners themselves, services provided by new entrepreneurs—all these help us to return the scale of daily interactions to the personal. And it is there that the hope for a better future is rewarded. Having come from a low-income family, I know that many people are unable to enjoy the kind of abundance I write about. What I hope to do in Mindful Shopping is to encourage those who can enjoy it to consume thoughtfully, deliberately, responsibly.

Visitors to the blog are invited to share comments, experiences, and stories, and yes, these can be about products or services found anywhere. New visitors may want to keep in mind that posts are organized by categories, and because a post can have more than one category, it may appear on more than one page.