You can do everything for Christmas, but also before and after

Tempo di lettura: 3 minuti

You can do what you can never do at Christmas, or you can do what you should do every day of your life, in order to make sense of existence: be aware that it is only through individual choices that you can bring about change and hope to reverse the course of a society that is dangerously slipping towards a degradation whose consequences can only fall on each and every one of us, bar none. If someone tells you that small gestures do not make a difference, they are simply manipulating your existence. To get you into the fence of ignorance where the air is definitely bad. If you also have children, there is no need to explain that you have made a choice that necessarily looks to the future. So come on, let’s make this choice of activism, it is cheap and the gain is universally assured.
If you haven’t already done so, read Activism will save us from hate (and extinction) and then take a look at Shein’s recent investigation into production to see how much, with one click, we can destroy our planet, the lives of people forced to work in degrading conditions and those of their families who have no future. All this, in order to hoard cheap clothes and accessories, which we compulsively accumulate in the belief that we have made a bargain. A bargain that we pay dearly for.
It is never too late to choose to practice more conscious choices. And doing so through giving is the best way to nurture a virtuous circle of discovery, knowledge, beauty.

So, my list of tips for Christmas, which is valid for the rest of the year, is as follows:

– Time: it is the best gift we can give and/or receive. It is a little piece of our life, which stays in that of the people we give it to. Think of the conversations that have changed your life, the stories of people who are no longer with us, the moments spent doing even the simplest of things but full of humanity. Think about what is left in your life from that time, and compare it to any other material good. Which, between the two, is an unrepeatable gift?

– Books: every book is a window to the world, and the gift of a book is one of the most beautiful gestures of love we can make. Indeed, through a book, we gift a world of emotions, wonder, knowledge, and our attention to the individual person for whom we have chosen it. “This book made me thinking about you”, is one of the most beautiful love expressions that can follow a gift. Reading generates change, self-reflection, at any age.

– Fair Trade products: the whole world of Fair Trade, from food to cosmetics, from ethical fashion to Christmas decorations. It is activism that translates into everyday gestures, one that we can practise at any time, anywhere in the world, even from the comfort of our own homes. We are addicted to the invisibility of those who produce what we wear and eat, we have lost the habit of stopping to learn about the path that the product we are buying has taken. We move around the world 24 hours a day like automatons whose only task is to consume, often without even asking ourselves whether we really like what we are buying. We hardly go into a shop thinking that we will find a moment of peace, of slowness, of familiarity, which we would need instead because we are, after all, taking care of ourselves. For me, entering a fair trade shop is like entering a place where time inside stands still while the hustle and bustle of the city flows by outside, because every object carries with it a story of humanity. Sometimes I watch on a loop the videos presenting the products, which inspire slowness, simplicity, wonder. So, in this place I find all three of my gift ideas: time, knowledge, solidarity.

Don’t rush with your Christmas gifts, if anything, choose them carefully.