GladRags Gab

I just got a brand spanking new laptop. First time I’ve ever owned one. I immediately took it down to my favorite coffee shop and went online. From that little cafe in my little town, my laptop picked up more than six wireless connections. For people in big cities, this is small beans. But to me, it’s astonishing. It’s easy to see a whole wireless world just around the corner with all of us connected, sharing information and photos and music through this invisible line that we couldn’t have imagined not that long ago. I am struck by the fast forward motion of technology juxtaposed to the ancient concept of GladRags. I like to live this way: one foot in, one foot out, I call it. I don’t want to eschew modern culture even though it appears to be problematic in so many ways, and I also don’t want to give up reaching back for the more sensible and sustainable ways of living that technology seems to be gobbling up and spitting out. So, I’m happy with my GladRags; I know that this reaching back is right. And I’m happy with my laptop; this reaching forward is exhilarating.

Michelle

Rachel Carson was born May 27, 1907. Her book, Silent Spring , started a wave of environmental concern that goes on to this day. She was instrumental in getting certain pesticides banned and her work helped form governmental regulatory programs to deal with environmental protections (many of which have been gutted by our current adminstration). But right now we need to think of banning more chemicals. A May 17 story in the LA times, reports on new studies that identify over 200 commonly found chemicals that are linked to cancer.  More info is avaliable at silentspring.org

Today I discovered VoiceYourself.com, a website that is full of information about the environment and activism. And I consider it a site with integrity because they actually link to GladRags in their Righteous Rags section (organic clothing). Too many so-called "save the earth, stop global warming" websites and magazines just can't bring themselves to mention truly sustainable products like reusable menstrual options. One of the founders of VoiceYourself is the warm and wacky Woody Harrelson. Hats off to you Woody, and your group.

-Brenda 

I recently read Bill McKibben’s book, Deep Economy . It is a complicated call to reexamine the “growth” model by which we measure economic health. He suggests a move away from the dominating global economy to one where communities generate more on a local level to meet their needs, and that this kind of economic model is more satisfying and leads to a deeper, more equitable prosperity.

He posits that the concepts “more” and “better” used to be nearly the same thing. If you had more rooms in your house it was better, if you have more products to choose from it’s better. But in our current world, “more” is often resource depleting and polluting and therefore not “better”. I think GladRags fit firmly in the “better” category because they save money for women, and save resources.  So in some ways our products embody the idea of deep economy.

But here’s the irony that we struggle with at GladRags . When your business and your mission is to a make sustainable product that lasts for years, it turns out that your greatest benefit is also your greatest obstacle. We note in our sales literature that our pads last for five years but we know for a fact many women use them for 10.  So as you can imagine we don’t really have many repeat sales. We have satisfied customers but they are not repeat customers.

 The first lesson In Marketing 101 is “make repeat sales to your current customers, because it’s expensive to get new customers”.  Hmmm, that sounds good in theory but once our customer has her GladRags or cup she doesn’t need to buy again.  So our solution has to be always finding the new customer.  And while this might seem like the same old “growth” model of economics, we know that if more women are using our products it really means less pollution and a healthier environment. It seems to refute McKibben’s theory because here “more” is “better”, but only because in this case “more” is “less”.  Wow, too many quotes - I’m dizzy!

Anyway, the gist of this is more women need to know about GladRags. And we’re working on a plan where, you, our satisfied-but-not-repeating-customers, help us get new customers. We welcome your thoughts and ideas as we address our challenge. -Brenda

I had a great birthday. For one thing, my favorite former employer, GladRags, asked me to blog for them (joy of joys). Secondly, we have a fantastic new tradition in our multi-generational house (I live with my parents, husband and two children in Vermont—I know it wouldn’t work for everyone but it’s working out really well for us). Instead of buying each other gifts for all the birthdays and holidays, we decided to put that money toward a project that the birthday person gets to choose. For my birthday this May I chose to make a medicine wheel garden in the front flowerbed. I spent the weekend digging in the dirt, mending the rock wall, and preparing the flowerbed for all the cool new plants I got to buy with my birthday gift certificate to the local plant store. My shopping spree included a bird bath, gazing ball and all my favorites: lavender, lemon balm, sage, strawberries, roses and thyme. Hoo-ray! Medicine wheels or shields are a Native American tradition used to create sacred space. I built mine on the principles found in The Medicine Wheel Garden: Creating Sacred Space for Healing, Celebration, and Tranquility by E. Barrie Kavasch. I associate them mostly with safety and have built small ones out of stones on my dresser to symbolically represent one that would surround my home or me.

I happened to read New Moon Rising: Reclaiming the Sacred Rites of Menstruation by Linda Heron Wind around the same time as I was working on this garden. Wind describes how to make a belly shield, which I quickly noticed was the same concept as a medicine wheel garden. Belly shields can be made either physically or mentally as a way to protect your belly from the negative energies in life. She also said something that struck me: that women also need a space to go to during PMS time where they don’t need to have their belly shields up, a place and time to be open to what I think of as the higher calling of menstruating: inspiration and understanding. Maybe my medicine wheel garden can be a place like that for me…although it is in the front of my house where all the neighbors can see as well as traffic going by. Do you think they’d mind me washing out my GladRags out there?

Michelle