During some routine online research with synchronicity in action, I had the pleasure of coming across the website of the Story of Stuff. This website is home to the work of Annie Leonard and contains the little documentary made by Annie, called The Story of Stuff, which you can watch above. On this wonderful site, you can also find other videos and articles, which are all dedicated to raising awareness about our materialistic society, out-of-control consumerism and trash, and the impact all this has on our health, other people, and the environment.
I was so impressed by the film Annie put together, as it truly represents what it means to be an Evolving Being. The video is about 20 minutes long, very simple, yet creative, catchy, and smart with just the right dose of humor!
It is one of those life-changing documentary films for those who are ready and open to change. I wish that everyone could see it and take instant action in their life to better our society but that is, of course, just wishful thinking. It will be eye-opening for many and may even bring you back to a conscious state when thinking about your own role as a consumer.
In summary, the video goes through the 5 steps of how our “stuff” is made from extraction and production to how it is distributed, ends up in our homes, and then how it is disposed of.
It is a video for our era and it could not have come at a better time with all the environmental and health damage and injustice we have subjected our planet and our beings to. It represents evolving beings like us for 3 main reasons:
1) It addresses the need for action when it comes to the environment, our health, our chemical lifestyles, and our ever-growing problems of disappearing natural resources and inadequate waste disposal, as well as taking being stewards of the Earth seriously
2) It addresses how our empty human nature is driven to happiness by blind consumerism and the pseudo-happiness we get from acquiring more and more stuff
3) It is about waking up and bringing about change, not about sitting back passively or being naïve or ignorant of what is going on when it comes to human dignity, decreased health, and why our environment is in the state it is in. We may have been doing things the same way for the past 50 or 100 years or more, but it does not mean it is serving us today!
I hope you have the desire to watch the film and pass it along to as many people as you can. And by all means, don’t just watch it once; watch it over and over again until you solidify new habits that remove you from the landscape of enslaving consumerism that hurts us all. For your health, true happiness, our fellow human beings, and the environment, it is so worth it to make changes when it comes to how and what we consume. Don’t watch this film just for the sake of watching it either. Challenge yourself and put it into action next time you are going out shopping. Think about and consider the question at all times, “is this stuff really all necessary?”
What Annie Leonard has done with this Story of Stuff movement is just one example of real people making a big difference in our world. Every person and their actions count and contribute to either being part of the problem or the solution to make Earth a good place to live for all.