the latest howies catalogue is as brilliant as ever. inbetween the clothing are various reflections. these are all on the drop down menu under think on the howies web site. i am adding it as a worship trick. here’s a couple that struck me:
Own Less
If you don’t own the latest thing,
it won’t go out of date.
If you don’t own much,
you won’t have much to lose.
If you own next to nothing,
you won’t worry about ending up with nothing.
If you own less than you want,
you will still have more than you need.
If you spend less money on things,
you can spend more time on you.
If you own less,
you will value it more.
If you own only what you can carry,
you will carry less baggage around with you.
Travel light.
Find your love.
You know that dream you carry around with you each day?
It’s kinda important.
Wasn’t it what you were put on planet earth to do?
They say everyone has a calling, can your still hear it?
Doesn’t it eat away at you?
That treadmill you are on, did it ever get too much?
Did you ever wonder what it would be like to do your thing?
Did you ever feel time was passing you by?
Just how many days have you left before your last?
Did you ever wonder about stuff like that?
Did you ask yourself ‘what was stopping you?’
There is never a right time.
You will be too old.
Too young.
Too something or other.
When was last time you took a risk?
Did you remember how alive it made you feel?
There are no guarantees of success.
It’s not called a leap of faith for nothing.
It’s not too late, honest.
Jump.
You might fall.
You might fly.
I read these and thought they were great too… But felt a little cynical confusion about them simply trying to sell more clothes, and using some sophisticated emotional techniques: projecting a cool, caring, creative image to us… but just so we buy more?
But I’ve actually spoken to a few of the Howies people over the phone – just some confusion about an order once – and they do seem totally genuine.
Which leaves me wondering… how much do we suffer the same cynicism? Do people see us as cynically trying to project a cool, caring, creative image… when all we want to do is sell them the gospel? We’d want to refute this strongly, but how? Just musing….
I was also very struck by the new Howies catalogue, and recently ran a session with the staff at LICC called ‘Why I’d like the Christian world to be more like the Howies catalogue’. I was impressed by the fact that they ran a piece urging people not to stick their products on a credit card if they couldn’t afford them, and I loved the reflections about ‘travelling light’ and ‘I acept ugly’. They resonate with what we’ve been trying to do through alt.worship in terms of feel, language, emotion, and so on. But Kester is right: it’s hard and confusing to separate the whole selling thing from the emotion, from the life-affirming vision. Both Howies (as an ethical trader) and Christians share the same dilemma about ‘selling’ a better vision. At least Howies seem to do it with artistic grace.