- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Zondervan (February 1, 2006)
- ISBN-10: 0310266300
- Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-Revolution-Living-Ordinary-Radical/dp/0310266300/
I did a review of this book on amazon.com on June 5th, 2010.
This book makes me want to not only make some small changes, but change my whole life. There aren’t many book I would read a second time, but this is one of them. While reading this book, I decided one morning to take a one year challenge. It’s a small step, but you have to start somewhere.
I bought the domain name trashsociety.com a while back, with many different intentions of what I could do with it. We have so much waste in our American culture. We are raised to do anything and everything that will make our lives easier and more comfortable. Well I am finally uncomfortable with comfort and irritated with ease. There is so much suffering in the world and we can all make a difference by intentionally choosing to make some simple changes in the way we live.
A few months ago, I was channel flipping on my TV (my nice flat screen TV that I just really needed to buy with the monthly satellite TV package that everyone needs in order to live because we must be entertained if we’re awake, right?) and came across a show called Hoarders. If you haven’t seen this show, check it out. It’s a little bit like watching a wreck. It’s awful, quite disturbing and yet you want to look at it. I’ve watched many episodes of it and came to one conclusion. The only difference between these hoarders that are being showcased for reality show entertainment and the rest of us watching is that the rest of us don’t have a problem getting rid of our stuff. We buy stuff, lots of stuff and when we are tired of it, we give it away or worse yet, throw it away.
What’s the challenge? The challenge is no new stuff for one year. This means no shopping in retail stores, with the exception of groceries and toiletries. (I don’t want CPS taking my kids away for my radicalness) Groceries and toiletries are the only new things we will buy and will, in the process, learn better ways to make those purchases. The only places we will shop is thrift stores or resale shops. No major purchases either. Now the one small issue here is that sometimes I have to buy things at work for stage sets or marketing. I will still have to make those purchases because I need my job. (Or do I? Okay, a subject for another time)
I will be blogging this challenge at trashsociety.com. I can’t say enough about this book, but it’s a MUST READ. I wish I could buy one for every person I know! Yeah, I know, I can’t for a year. LOL