My sandals have new soles\u2014and it took a village!<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t thank my local shoe repair man. How he pays the rent is a mystery, when each time I offer him a pair of shoes to fix, he sneers at me and thrusts them back, yelling (he doesn\u2019t hear well) \u201cNo! No good!\u201d <\/p>\n
My well-loved and well-worn Mexican sandals are the most recent shoes he spurned. They were too cheap; I could buy three new pairs for the price he\u2019d charge me; I should throw them away; etc, etc. But then I came to Holden Village. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever visited this Lutheran retreat center tucked in the mountains of central Washington, you know that it\u2019s a place that values creative re-use. Clothing, furniture, and books shift endlessly from use to use, owner to owner. From the boxes of extra, free men\u2019s, women\u2019s and children\u2019s clothing, a friend fished a pair of flip flops. He detached the soles, used glue and clamps to attach them to my sandals, and now I am walking with the confidence of a woman who knows her next step won\u2019t be her shoes’ last. <\/p>\n
Remember the mantra, \u201creduce, reuse, recycle?\u201d Reducing\u2014making and buying less\u2014is straightforward if unpopular. Recycling is getting easier as more businesses and communities go \u201cgreen.\u201d But when a man trained to repair shoes won\u2019t do so, you know that fixing, repurposing, or sharing things is a lost art. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s try to change this. Check your closet for an item that needs hemming, or a new button, or a new sole, or a new plug. Fix it yourself, or find someone who can help you. For creative inspiration, get a copy of the hip do-it-yourself magazine, Ready Made. <\/p>\n
Stand up for reuse, that forgotten second \u201cR!\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My sandals have new soles\u2014and it took a village! I can\u2019t thank my local shoe repair man. How he pays the rent is a mystery, when each time I offer him a pair of shoes to fix, he sneers at me and thrusts them back, yelling (he doesn\u2019t hear well) \u201cNo! No good!\u201d My well-loved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[952,951],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post","tag-recycle","tag-reuse"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n