[Canmore AB 10-31-08] So I was at this fair trade/environment sustainability conference this past weekend trying to process what it really all means. I realized again that there are many choices and very little education out in the marketplace. On Thursday night one of the keynote speakers spoke on the global trade injustices in third world which has resulted in a book that she wrote. I chatted with her after the session to discover that she has moved on to another topic that has resulted in writing another book that is focused on food and sustainability. Seemingly, she has moved on to the next big thing… turn the page. I was hoping to have a more in depth conversation regarding the injustices she spoke about but she did not seem that interested as people were lined up for her to sign her books.

What I found at the booths along the hallways of the college the next two days were people who have huge hearts and huge ideals. I guess the struggle I had was how to walk the tension between heart/desire and ideals. Now I have to admit that I have been in the high ideals side of the spectrum… just ask many of my friends along the journey and they would tell you how sometimes I drove them mad with my standing firm and not giving in. So I understand when people are laying out their, no holds barred, ideals around environment and labour, I understand the passion, the high standards, the incredible drivenness… a mountain to die on attitude. I appreciate that so-o-o much as I spent a lot of my life around far too many that were content with the status quo.

I guess as I get older, and hopefully a bit more wiser, I have had to learn, the hard way, to be a bit, no, a lot more patient and try to take a more people in the new direction. First, this may sound like I am taking the easy way out but really this path causes much more tension, particularly inside me. Encounter Earth is existing real-time in this tension. We purchased an existing store, Canoe, that sold traditionally made and traded product and are taking the time to transition the clothing lines over 18 months so that we can say unequivocally that the people who made this t-shirt or those pants earned a living wage. Second, that tension between heart and ideals has caused me to take notice of others around me, like many of our current customers, who do not necessarily see life from my perspective. I have realized that tasteful awareness and kind dialog can bring change. The other path is often fraught with pushing and shoving, trying to convince people that they are wrong and that there is a right way. I am not discounting the activism-style way because the shock and awe is often needed to wake people up. This philosophy often gets the pendulum swinging the other way but it struggles with winning more than a small minority of people over to change their choices.

As I stated at the top I was at this conference that was about economic and environmental sustainability which is at the foundation of encounter earth. So I laud the efforts of the host college and all those in attendance. I realize again that as encounter earth is built upon that foundation the next phase needs to be heart. We are framing a big heart to share the stories of the friends that we are beginning to make in the third world who are needing a living wage to support their family in the most base of needs as well as a safe and healthy environment to live in. encounter earth mission is to connect hearts between the consumers, like you and me in the most wealthiest nations in the world, and the poor in the broken parts of the world. This is a difficult journey to make happen because there is no certified path but just plain old hard, grind-it-out work both at the storefront end as well as the manufacturing end… no shortcuts, just one nail at a time.