Costco

We are at a historical moment when our government has egregiously chosen to indulge the small percentage of obscenely rich in our country and further embed the majority of Americans, including the working-class and poor, in an even tighter choke hold. How bloated must their pocketbooks become before they recognize the suffering of others? When do we draw the line with true ferocity? Niceties and 'excuse me's' no longer do. We can't transform systems and enact true solidarity by smiling placidly and turning our heads to layoffs, and the criminal dismantling of our country's social safety net, however small and porous it may have already been. There is no merry way when the majority of Americans will suffer and have already been suffering. When global crises continue to flare and burn. Every act must be a step towards a new edifice and orientation, and it must be taken now. In our homes, offices, check-out lines, text threads. Wherever and whenever we remember to see the everyday as our platform, and care, reciprocity, cooperation, accountability, and equity as our palette from which we must build. They are not buzzwords to be plastered on websites or instagram feeds. "Saving human lives" is not a cliche. Nor should it be an either/or scenario, in which we calculate whose and how many lives we save. Rather, we must consider how we can nurture more life-giving practices. It's not a question of life or death, but how to live more fully.

I just became a member of Costco. I have chosen to participate in the paradox of buying more than is needed in a given moment, in order to save money; to support and consider the needs of my individual household, independent of the needs and choices of other households in my community. Is Costco my short-term fix at the expense of the structural solution? How do I move beyond individual behavior changes, such as better spending habits and more pragmatic consumer choices? Must our options only exist within the paradigms of consumerism and individuality? What about the paradigm of the collective and shared ecology?