The New England Vegan Ethic

Use it up, use it out, Make do, Do without – an ethic close to my New England roots, as well as my vegan life. If I don’t need it, why buy it? If I don’t use it, why not give it away to someone who can find use for it?
Applies to every aspect of life, nu?

Reminded today, while whipping up a few more veggie bags from scrap fabrics of how I coped with the loss of my beloved in October of 99, and how I dealt with 9/11. I was so utterly in shock, so deep in a black abyss, so dismantled by his sudden demise, and the vast amount of suffering that 9/11 wrought, words failed me, still fail me.

9/11 was a time of horror for the entire world, yet left me floundering in confusion why no one got that 10/29/99 was my 9/11. I went into rote behavior. I opened my sewing box. I began to piece together bits of fabric, with no plan, no clue what I was doing, just methodically washing, starching, cutting, and stitching together random bits of fabric. I bought dozens of yards of fabric in both yardage and “fat quarters” with no idea of how or why I’d ever use them up, in an attempt to fill an un-fillable void.

Fast forward to a time when I’ve pieced several quilts, given many away, and have still lots of fabric that may very well dry rot before I reach the bottom. Also, I’m now vegan, which translates into treading as lightly on Gaia as is conceivable.

Those first efforts at pieced nine squares taunt me. An opportunity has arisen, in the form of my offer to put together drawstring bags for my vegan friends to use for bulk beans, veggies, fruit, whatever else they see fit to stuff in them. I have encountered a cause, in the form of a horse with a surgical bill of over 8K. His name is Chavez. So, the deal became that anything over shipping cost would be donated to Chavez. The bags keep getting fancier and fancier, in the efforts to raise money for Chavez. My hope is that those receiving the bags will be wowed enough to be generous (to the degree they can.) and allow me, the woman who witnessed the second 9/11 from the other side of a sewing machine to find peace – at last.

The Bag Lady Project

It dawned on me during a conversation about plastic bags and such that not everyone is able to make shopping bags, and I have a fabric stash of epic proportions. So, since I’ll never use it all, how about sharing the wealth and helping to reduce the amount of plastic vegetable bags that go into the landfill, where they’ll stay forever.

The bags themselves are constructed from fabrics and ribbons and such that have taken up space for way too long in my space. I figure they’ll figure out that they can not only be useful for grocery trips for fruits and veggies, but also for bulk beans, and the like. So far, bags have been mailed off to 4 recipients, and I am totally jazzed waiting to hear the reaction. This morning I made another 16 bags. I intend to send them out with love, and hope they can cover the postage, and if they choose to send me some small token of appreciation, all the better. Just passing it forward……