live an ethical life

People seem to think you are either a pompous ass or a hypocrite if you talk about trying to live your life ethically and with an eye on moral purpose—but I am serious! I’m working on it. Got a long way to go. First I have to discover what is ethical and moral….

I find myself in a VERY similar situation as of late and have been giving this ethics goal a lot of thought. I discussed today with a colleague how I was going to just leave well enough alone and let the “administration” do their job..accept that I can not single handedly change what has been working for many, many years…then I rememebered this goal and my daily affirmation “I will lead an ethical life in my workplace” and figured fuck it, I can change things and should I not speak up, I am not really being ethical. So, here I am, about to take on more work, knowing that it is simply the right thing to do…it feels lovely! Cheers~

I was called a curmudgeon the other day by one of my oldest and dearest friends…and a friend who I have been seperated from for the past 11 years. At first, I was basically devestated. I love words and have always thought “curmudgeon” was such a lovely descriptive word when fitting. NEVER thought it would be befitting for moi! So, I am lead here, to 43things, to work it out and I thought about my goal to live an ethical life. I have realized over the past 11 years that I have settled quite a bit. I’m that little conscience in your ear, that annoying buzz that reminds you not to turn on red or to bite your tongue in the line b/c, after all, its not the sales clerks fault…I try to live a life that makes everyone who deals with me a little lighter and happier…and if that makes me a curmudgeon, so be it. I sleep VERY well at night!

I’ve decided to start giving my spare change to the homeless people I see on the street again. I used to do this before I went off the rails and started avoiding all people, but now that I’m recovered if I just keep walking on by like they don’t exist I am a horrible horrible person. Even if I have no money it’s much better to say that then just to ignore somebody.

How horrible must it be to be sitting on the street asking people for help and they won’t even look at you.

In my continuing quest to stop buying things from people who exploit other people and the rest of the world I have decided to begin the painful steps of separating myself from Amazon.co.uk. It’s harsh but they are evil after all. And instead of buying my books from other big companies I decided to find an independent bookstore. And I found the best bookshop ever!

It’s like they took all the sections I like out of a regular bookshop and put them all into one little shop and expanded them. I kept finding books I really love or books I’d always wanted to read, or new books I relly wanted to read. This has some bad implications for my finances of course…

Uncessary underwear is a major temptation of evil. This I have decided. My mum wanted to buy underwear and tried a whole bunch of stuff on. So I was left to wander the department armed with the full knowledge that with one carefully placed comment she would buy me anything I wanted.

But then as I was wandering up and down thinking how tempting everything looked, and how lovely I would look in this or that I realised how stupid I was being. As if suddenly buying some stupid underwear would make my life better and all shiny. It was probably all made by sweatshop workers in Malaysia or something terrible like that, and made with envinronmentally destructive methods.

And what do I really want to impress any future partners with? Nice underwear or a caring and conscientious personality.

Yet again I have managed to turn down the offer of beautiful shoes offered to me free. But they do not come free!! No doubt some little child payed a heavy price working 18 hours a day in some factory of hell. And why is it I keep thinking a pair of nice shoes will be just the thing to make me look fabulous anyway??? I don’t like all the things which have been implanted into my brain!!! having nice shoes won’t make me happy! And when my last pair of trainers finally begins to leak like the rest of them, then I will buy a nice pair of fair-trade replacements. So I decree it!

I also have bought Oxfam Unwrapped gifts for all of my aunties this year instead of getting them stupid little presents. And for my friend J a virtual present from the RSPB: a nestbox to keep her tits warm in the winter :P http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/mall/productpage.cfm/rspb/R0666/86007

for being turned on to this site…I got cheered by a lovely woman who inspired me to adopt this goal. I recently had a lengthy conversation about the lonliness surrounding living the ethical life I so desire, talking about the crap that builds up in my mind over decisions I have made that seem to do little more than isolate myself…and the advice I got was to never give up on being the ethical, righteous woman that I am. It has been difficult at times but I feel like I so need to continue on this path for my own self interest. On top of that, I have no idea how to be any other way…I thank my family for that :) Guess I just needed to get this out. Thanks~

I need make-up. But it has to be make-up which is not founded on a background of guinea pig torture. How could I even imagine sitting in my room plastering stuff all over my face while little J&D scamper around, oblivious to the fact that their own loving mother is funding the torture of their fellow guinea pigs??? No!!!! I could not!!!

So the BUAV website is the place for me. I’ve sent away for their little booklet which has a list of all the non-guinea pig (or other animals) torturing brands. Even cooler they have a bunny map which has the location of different shops selling good make-ups in various UK cities, including Edinburgh. And you can download a PDF map showing all the shops and what brands they carry that are good. So useful!

In fact, I have for years.