New Year Buy Nothing New Pledge

After much contemplative thought, I am pledging that in the first 6 months of 2007, I will buy nothing new. With the obvious exception of food, medicine, and new underwear--I pledge to buy nothing new until July 1st 2007.

I am lead to this pledge for many reasons--the foremost being a witness for change in our consumerism culture. With this in mind, I pledge to not only buy nothing new, but to talk and write about this action.

I first heard of this concept (lifestyle change?) in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle a year ago--here is the blog site of "The Compact"--the original buy-nothing-new group, which has inspired me to this action. And here is another quite fun blog on this subject: Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

A hint to me just how much we accept the buy-new-stuff-all-the-time messages of our culture was one reaction from my 28 year old daughter---"Wow, Mom, that is radical!" she said. Why is this pledge radical? and what does viewing this action as a radical step say about our culture?