Oct. 27th - Weekly Buy Nothing Day

When I start to suffer from writer's block (which is just an excuse, so you know), I have a very simple method that I use to reconnect with my creative self (oh god, I sound like Sylvia Brown).

What I do is go out to a general goods store and buy two things. The first is a pack of crayons. I make it a point to purchase the box of crayons with the least number of colors in it. This imposes a very strict set of limits on my creativity. Next, I buy a children's coloring book. Then, I go home and color.

As I am seemingly reverting to a more innocent stage of my creative self, a few things happen. First, I am stuck with thick bold lines and primary colors. We were all taught at some point to stay within those lines and use solid colors. These are the fundamentals of most American creativity (at least within the typical middle-class 80's househould). What happens next is that I very quickly grow bored of staying within the lines or using solid colors. Soon, I begin to blend colors and use the black crayon to expand and alter the existing lines in the coloring book. Such strict limits will cause a person to break free, walk away or submit. I have always been of the break free mindset.

Soon I am coloring on the cover of the book, writing poems or treatises in the margins and otherwise seeing how far I can push the medium of coloring book and crayon. Shortly, I realize the similarities between my writing. Writer's block is nothing more than falling into a pattern and refusing to reform, rework or transcend your creative boundaries. Soon, I toss the coloring book aside and return to my creative processes with new vigor and fresh ideas.

I posit that habitual shopping and consumerism is a form of writer's block that we all suffer from. Instead of finding more exciting, interesting or beneficial ways of running our lives, we fall back on patterns. My weekly Buy Nothing Days are the coloring book and crayon solution to this. I return to the childlike state where purchasing and shopping were unknown to me. Everything I needed was available to me. Fun was outside or in the head. I didn't need to buy a new record to validate my weekend. There are limits, though, and these Buy Nothing Days give me an opportunity to think about how to rework them without spending money. It is a fiscal, social and personal exercise.

We all need exercise. We all need to color our lives every once in a while. Why not try reworking your habits for one day, whether it is your consumerism, your diet or your relationships.

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