Day 14 Woman of Inspiration: Lorde
You would have to live under a rock to not know who Lorde is after her "nailing it" with 2 Grammy's at just 17 years old. This young pop phenomina from New Zealand gets my tribute as a woman of inspiration for her passionate lyrics. Music inspires us, it moves us, but today the messege from so many lyrics lack substance. For this young artist to speak such raw truth about not "having it all" but believing in yourself, is far beyond her years. Add to that the desire to see women empowering each other is a fire that I believe is starting to really trickle into the minds of this maturing generation.
As a woman who is passionate about empowering women, I pay attention to the subtitlies. I have noticed on my journey that women suppress themselves as much as men suppress us. I was told recently in a deep discussion (with another woman) that women don't want to be empowered. To me that is a sad remark that I don't believe is true for the majority of women, but it does exist. This is a bigger conversation then I want to dive into on a Sunday morning, but the reality is that by identifying what moves us, we can take simple actions each day to manifest our destiny. For me that is helping filter the next generation of women to not have to go through the same struggles. Hopefully they will truly understand what it means to all be on the same team.
My favorite lyric from this New Zealand girl is in this song Team: she sings, "I'm kinda over gettin' told to throw my hands up in the air, so there!" As a business woman, I feel everyday throws that sort of energy at me. Society's expectations of what success means are very contradictory to the measures that I see are important to sustain a revolution. More more more for less less less. Don't you get tired of filling your trash can with cheap crap and driving to the BigBox Store to get more? Ok that is a big idea so let me break it down over a cup of coffee:
We all know that it is not economical to go to Starbuck's everyday and buy a large Latte in a disposable cup. So some people move towards more sustainable options. In order to prove my point let's just put a rough estimate of 300 coffee's a year and compare some of the options to making this more sustainable for both the budget and the environment...
1. Starbuck's Latte $3 x 300 = $900/year. Bring Your Own Cup is the more sustainable option.
2. Buy a drip cone and filters: initial $10 investment, $5 monthly plus coffee @ $10/week =@$600/year. Bringing the cost per day down to less then $2 and the waste being only the filter. Pretty good right? Might be sacrificing on quality a little bit so probably spending another $100 on those special treat stops to starbucks.
3. Buy a good espresso maker for $400 (can definitely be more). Creating that full ritual of a high quality coffee to start the day. We recently learned this investment should give you 7 years of enjoyment at 4+ cups of coffee a day. If you run this through the number mill you will find that you only end up spending about a nickel per coffee on that awesome machine, so at $12/week on beans, your still around $600/year with a much higher quality experience.
Yes, in a Utopia that dead machine at 7 years could be rebuilt to give it new life. How much is that rebuild worth? Well, clearly as a society we do not find value in this sort of labor and it is time we take notice.
Yes, that whole rant was to get to the root of our economic delema in America: garbage consumerism. We throw it out and buy a new one. But where does that new one come from? Whether it's the sleeve on your Starbucks disposable cup or the dead espresso machine, they both were shipped over from China where we have broken down the instructions for how to actually build things into a process and brainless task, completely neglecting the human capacity for inventing and creating. How do we, as a people, come together on the same team and realize that we need to give value to development of innovative minds but with a consciousness towards sustainablity. I believe the root to our economic crisis is in the hands of the consumer. Since 85% of the spending in America is done by women, I believe that it is the responsiblity of the feminine in each and every one of us (humans) to listen closely to the gift of intuition to bring more and more integrity to our purchases each day. I am dedicated to finding the most sustainable solutions to manufacture My Alibi Clothing. In the coming months we will be announcing some really cool things so keep your eyes tuned in as My Alibi supports the bike integrated lifestyle by showing what it means that we are all on the same team.
Pedal it Forward~
abbie
