One of the Today Show segments this month features a woman who is challenged with pursuing her desired career of singing because of the certain financial roadblocks we all face– money to put a roof over our heads, buy gas, or eat.
Along with working a second job to save for a sustainable existence when she goes for the dream of singing for a living, she became a Compacter.
Since sabbaticals cost money most of the time, we should all think of becoming Compacters. We can save money and the world…or at least the part that ends in the trash.
The Compact started two years ago, when a group of friends in San Francisco, who were tired of devoting so much of their time and money on items they don’t need, vowed to go six months without buying anything new. Their stated mission was to flee consumerism. American consumerism, they say, has led to global environmental and socioeconomic crises, and the only way to reverse it is to stop buying into it.
So, it’s been more than a year and a half since Rachel Kesel – a member of that original SFO group – has so much as even bought a pair of socks.
They called themselves “The Compact” after the Mayflower Compact, the 1620 social contract drawn up by the Pilgrims, those Puritans bent on building a “city on a hill” that would be a beacon to the world.
The premise is simple: barter, borrow, or buy secondhand for a year—food, drink, health, and safety necessities excluded. Yes, you could buy light bulbs and new underwear, but a hammer or a new toy for the baby? Unacceptable.
Fun and relationships are not forsaken. You can keep those plans to go to your high school reunion in Montana or visit Mom on Mother’s Day. Air travel, interestingly, is permitted.
There are also no set dogma and no rules, and no one installs a camera in your closet. “The Compact is just a group of people responding to a rising tide of environmental anxiety, and it’s broad and loose enough for people to project their own concerns on it,” states John Perry, founder of this design-it-yourself movement.
Some members clearly join because of the ecological impact. Americans generated 246 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2005—a 60% increase since 1980—and more than half of that mass went into 1,654 landfills. That is like a fleet of 1,800 Queen Mary 2 cruise ships being buried every year. That makes some people quake, so they join up.
Since sabbaticals can challenge our wallets, think about the funds YOU can generate by not buying ANYTHING NEW for a year. (Are you off the floor? Can you hear me now?) Rachel estimates that she has saved $4,000 during her period of abstinence.
So think hard now – you can join an exploding group of people and a metastasizing network of blogs who look consciously to reduce consumption and keep trash out of the landfills; at the same time, you’ll generate your sabbatical fund. Plus, for your efforts, the neighborhood might hold a vigil in your honor (with borrowed candles) or somewhere in the world, you’ll have instant friends. The Compact has collected some 9,000 acolytes from Bucharest to Taipei.
The best news of all is you don’t have to stay a Compacter forever. A “return to normalcy” is your reward after you get those sabbatical bucks you want – right around the corner of the most miserable year of your life. (Kidding!)
This is a possible plan to afford a sabbatical of your dreams; but remember, don’t throw away your Visa. Instead, tuck it away in the cookie jar, then wrap it with duck tape that hopefully will hold against a year of your gnawing and scratching. Could you do it?
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