Sunday Best is a curated list of awesome articles I’ve read over the past week or so that I find enlightening, educational or just plain interesting. This week’s focus is on consumption, and given how the focus of Christmas is buy, buy, buy, I thought it was timely. Enjoy!

A big fat con

Seth Godin is a thought leader everyone should read. He writes daily: pithy, usually short pieces that contain nuggets of goodness. He wrote this piece about Black Friday (which is huge in America) about what a con unconscious consumption is. We don’t need the stuff we are being urged to buy, and considering the astounding amounts of poverty that still exist in the world, quite frankly, buying so much stuff for the sake of it is obscene.

Retail against humanity

Elliot.org is an advocacy/expose/consumer affairs website that has a travel focus (disclaimer: I was quoted about unfair travel fees, specifically, the single supplement). This year, they railed against Black Friday, Christmas as a potential year-round phenomena, and how festivities have been turned into nothing more than opportunities to shop.

Gift-giving: minimalist style

I went to see The Minimalists in Adelaide when they were doing their world tour. They are a couple of super inspiring guys who spurned the corporate world (and all that that entailed) to embrace a minimalist—and much happier—lifestyle. They got rid of a lot of stuff, simplified and scaled back. I loved their take on gift giving and it’s simply this: give time, give meaningful experiences, give to improve the lives of others. And that’s exactly what I’ve done this year.

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