The Rich Get Pitier

The rich only have money on their minds. All their reasoning capacity takes form from the basis of money. Their views of the world are mediated by monetary worth and consequence. And similarly, their actions in the world are in the interest of protecting their money. This may not be true of all rich people, but we recently hosted a rich person who displayed such characteristics.

S/he didn’t understand why we grew our own vegetables and herbs whilst we could probably afford to just buy them from the supermarket. Could we not afford it? Was that the problem? But we looked so happy. S/he hadn’t been with ‘normal’ people for so long, so we were confusing in our zen temperament and vintage clothes—were we really broke, or making some wild statement?

Second hand clothes. Another problem to the rich: the reason for procuring vintage clothing takes root from elsewhere besides money. And that’s the problem. S/he honestly could not believe my 80s high-waist jeans and Shangaan crop top. Have I lost all sense of fashion? Was I one of those tree-hugging hippies? Or perhaps I was taking this artist thing to an extreme level… I’ve always been extreme. So very confusing!

And the juicing?? Why not just buy juice? Woolworths has perfectly fresh juice with no additives or sweeteners. It’s always on special, you can buy four cartons for R20, and they can last you over a week? Why did we insist on juicing our vegetables? Wait a second, so we CAN afford vegetables all of a sudden? Why on earth would we still grow little chillies and spinach on our terrace? Are we insane?

“And speaking of insanity, what’s this excitement you have over vegetarian meals? Now I know damn well that you like meat, so what’s the problem? Is everything okay Uhuru? Are you guys struggling financially? I mean can you not afford even minced meat-nyana, or wors, or even tinned fish? Surely you want to enjoy meat, it’s 2014, we have escaped the life of suffering under apartheid!

Okay, so should I even ask about your car situation? When we had to go to the market you insisted we walk meanwhile my BMW X5 was parked at the gate. Firstly, like, markets? Seriously? We could have just gone to Woolies. And this walking business seriously cramps my style. Have you seen my shoes, have you seen my body weight? Do you know when last I took a walk?

When I said I would stay whilst you go gallivanting searching for baby aubergines and tahini on foot I anticipated watching reality television, but you don’t even have satellite TV. Who doesn’t have DSTV in this day and age? Even huts in the rural areas have satellite dishes! And yet you just have so many books!? Huh? Here’s an idea: instead of staying and subjecting myself to your ‘music’, let’s just cancel the whole veggie mission and drive to Spur. There’s a ribs special there tonight”.

I refused.

You left.

We’ll probably never see each other again.

The responses were there before the questions were asked…

On vintage/second-hand clothes:

The Fabulous Vintage Age

On gardening and growing your own food:

Writing + Gardening = Fulfilment

On eating meat:

Defiling your Mother

Holy Cow

On juicing:

The Blacker the Berry…

On life, happiness, and finding good balance between conserving self and conversing with self, keep reading this blog…

The Fabulous Vintage Age

If you consider yourself serious about going green, reducing your carbon footprint, and contributing towards a sustainable development of mother earth—that is, if you have been supporting sustainably grown food, recycling, and driving less if at all, using electricity consciously, or fitting sonar panels—then you should seriously consider buying your clothes from second hand clothing shops, and even selling/exchanging your own clothes with those who can help sell them or wear them.

If you consider how many clothing products are made each and every day in order to maintain the demand of the department chain stores around the world so they may meet their supply to you, then you’ll realise that your carbon footprint count may be as big as one left by a 4×4 jeep. Every season you see different trends coming and going, only to come back again. Imagine the demand on manufacturers for the same textiles our parents wore in the 70s/80s/90s; in fact, I see the same things I wore in my teen years back in the shops again, retailing for a fortune.

Now, it’s not necessary to tell you how much money you’ll save from buying second hand—because it still boils down to status attitudes against buying second hand clothing; the middle and middle-upper/upper classes feel that they can afford to switch and follow trends brand new with the regularity of seasons—but the main factor here is sustainable development. Let’s forget ego and think eco: the energy (let’s think here of both the electricity and human labour), water (clean water to ensure sustainability of colour and texture; when there are whole countries today with no clean drinking water), and vehicles (think trucks, trains, ships, and planes) required to produce the number of textiles for all 7 billion of the world’s population every season is immeasurable.

If you are serious about going green, find your nearest second hand clothing shop. The benefits are great, I mean on top of leaving a smaller foot print: they don’t make clothes like they used to. This is true, true, true!! All the clothes I have been buying from the second half of the 20^th century are all strong, detailed, and unique: the jackets have beautiful linings inside, gorgeous vintage buttons, and semi-visible prints on the collar; the skirts have beautiful slits, and are functional, with lovely deep pockets; the shoes are so strong and comfortable, and as time would have it, the leather at its best; the handbags and brooches are telling of the elegance of our mother and grandmothers; you only stand to gain.

I am not saying ditch your fabulousness, but rather be a fashionista with a conscience. The eighties are back in fashion, instead of spending R1000 on a pair of Dr Martens, or R500 on a pair of high-waisted jeans, rather raid your old wardrobe, visit a second hand store, or even organise a clothes-swapping weekend with your friends. We all have different tastes and the eighties catered a buffet of choice. Stop and think before wasting a fortune on trends that will leave as quickly as they have come. Show us character by looking great and unique from second hand purchases. You only stand to gain. So does mother earth.

Jo’burg, do you have any second hand clothing shops worth visiting? Holler at me, I’ll be in town in two weeks…