Early this summer my friend Kelly & I agreed to join forces on the totally awesome event that she dreamed up and founded in 2010—Traverse City Maker’s Market.

It’s been a whirlwind few months (since these things generally take a year of planning), which involved the two of us collaborating on a new website, recruiting over one hundred applications from awesome artists and crafters from all around Michigan, planning and promoting the coolest new thing in Traverse City.

This Saturday—October 22nd—the event finally arrives! (RSVP on our Facebook event page)

We’ve got 25 of the coolest vendors from around the state, plus a half-dozen amazing food & beverage vendors (including hand-squeezed brats!) and local musicians providing a great backdrop for us all day.

(plus some pretty sweet event merch too!)

October is a wonderful time to visit northwest Michigan – come on up this weekend for Maker’s Market!

PS. After-party at Right Brain Brewery is gonna be insane in the membrane.

Here are a few products from our vendors that I’m definitely looking forward to checking out:

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While in Kenya I lived in the city of Kisumu. Honestly, the city is very, very different than my hometown of Traverse City, MI—in a lot of ways opposite even (like the fact that it is always hot and sunny)

But even with all the differences I felt right at home from the moment I stepped off the plane.

Everything, despite being so different felt really familiar, but the one thing that actually was similar is that the city is right on the shore of Lake Victoria. The funny thing is that I don’t know how many conversations I had trying to describe how large Lake Michigan is (trying to calculate miles to kilometers in my head is hopeless), and my descriptions were never met with the astonishment I’d expected.

Come to find out Lake Victoria is actually larger than Lake Michigan… in fact it’s larger than any other freshwater lake in the world—except for Lake Superior of course.

So as you’d expect, fish is the main export for the region and catching, buying and selling fish is the main source of income for a large part of the population.

And everyone I met gave me the same answer when asked their favorite food—Tilapia.

As common as the fish is, it’s not everyday fare for most locals… more of a special treat. So whenever anyone has a chance to eat it they get really excited (kind of like me & Chalupas).

I got to have a home-cooked Tilapia meal on my first evening in Kisumu and it was easy to see why everyone loves it. While most of the east African diet is hearty and delicious, it can be a little light on flavor (at least after you’ve had the same beans & rice for nearly every meal). So to dig into this flavorful fish is a great exercise for what might be a slightly bored palate.

(of course the fruit is absolutely insane too… no lacking in daily flavor when it comes to fruit)

The next morning I actually got up early with the team to take a boat ride on the peaceful waters of Lake Victoria.

One thing I had in the back of my mind while eating the fish was this YouTube video that I’d seen addressing the fishing industry and the fact that many impoverished widows must prostitute themselves in exchange for fish. So floating around in our little boat and looking into the eyes of the fishermen, some of whom you know will be trading in their day’s work later that evening for some quick pleasure & feeling of power & control was an incredibly surreal experience.

It made made me realize that the value of last night’s dinner was much more than just the few bucks of the purchase.

For many of the women it costs them their bodies and life. If you’re involved in trading fish for sex, chances are you’ll get AIDS. The fishermen don’t really care and the women don’t have any other choice.

This is one reason why in the States we really like the fact that we are so disconnected from our food. You know it doesn’t really come from a farm anymore, but a factory… and that’s just as well with us. It’s one less thing to think about and if you can get cheap chicken… well that’s what America is all about, isn’t it.

We really don’t want to know about the human beings on the other end. We don’t want to know that the American farmer is an endangered species. We don’t want to know that the Columbian coffee picker once had a home and a farm of his own… but now has no other choice but to pick beans for cents a day because all the natural resources in his region have been decimated. We especially don’t want to know that those perfectly melted Nestlé morsels in our cookies may have been produced by slave children in Cote d’Ivoire…

Because knowing that stuff makes me feel guilty.

In fact a lot of proponents for ethical and healthy food production want us to feel guilty. Guilt is a heckuva marketing tool after all (the church has been using it for millennia), and if they can make us feel guilty we just might support their cause.

But I don’t think guilt is necessarily the right response to newfound knowledge of the truth behind our food. I definitely know that it shouldn’t be a deterrent to accepting the truth—because whether we accept it or not, the truth is always true.

So once I’m able to look at my cookie and say “this chocolate has come at a very great price,” it makes me appreciate it a little bit more. It also invokes a bit of compassion and respect for whoever is around the world on the other end of that chocolate, whether it’s a child forced into labor, a woman with no choice or a man unjustly underpaid but doing everything he can to provide a home for his family.

When I know that truth it is inspiring. It makes me want to support those who are trying to create better systems of production. It makes me want to make purchases that I know are better for my neighbor (even if she does live on the other side of the world).

It makes me want to find a way to show my gratitude to those making big sacrifices so that I can eat.

So for me it could be a big move—like one to Africa to minister to the widows and help them find healthier ways to run their business, or it could be a small move—like moving two shelves down to buy the fair trade coffee.

Either way it’s something I can do that’s not a result of guilt, but rather a result of accepting and knowing the truth behind my meal.

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Check out all my Strong Odors artwork via the “original illustrations” tag.

This illustration available as a limited edition giclee print. Visit the shop to get yours.

Attn: Bloggers

If you’d like to use this image for a post on Martin Luther King, Jr. please feel free. All I ask is that you give credit back to this article. Thanks!

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I happen to have a girl of my own. I hope someday she knows how blessed she is so that those blessings overflow from her and onto those who need it most.

75 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds living with HIV in Africa are female.

Visit the website to find out how you can stop the cycle for one girl.

(via Paul)

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My wonderful and super-cool wife just launched her first Etsy store:

Buckets of Moonbeams

Each of her creations places style, creativity and function on a very high level. She won’t make anything that you can’t use every day.

Any dude trying to think of a gift for your lady… this is the place.

(I think her stuff is way under-priced considering the quality and time and cursing invested into each item)

Just a handful of items up now… so act fast, they’re gonna fly.

Go there now!

Buckets of Rain

Buckets of rain
Buckets of tears
Got all them buckets comin’ out of my ears.
Buckets of moonbeams in my hand,
I got all the love, honey baby,
You can stand.

I been meek
And hard like an oak
I seen pretty people disappear like smoke.
Friends will arrive, friends will disappear,
If you want me, honey baby,
I’ll be here.

Like your smile
And your fingertips
Like the way that you move your lips.
I like the cool way you look at me,
Everything about you is bringing me
Misery.

Little red wagon
Little red bike
I ain’t no monkey but I know what I like.
I like the way you love me strong and slow,
I’m takin’ you with me, honey baby,
When I go.

Life is sad
Life is a bust
All ya can do is do what you must.
You do what you must do and ya do it well,
I’ll do it for you, honey baby,
Can’t you tell?

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I have a great church and I like my pastor a lot. He is compassionate and loves to study and meets the needs of his congregation well. His words of wisdom on a Sunday 4 years ago altered my view of God for the better and are tattooed on my soul…

A few weeks ago though, I almost walked out of the service.

He was teaching a message titled “Am I Unique?” which was pretty good up until a certain point…

and then, for some reason (I really don’t remember what the correlation to the subject at hand was) he made some sort of wisecrack about Al Gore and that God’s gonna be the one to destroy the earth so we’ve really got nothing to worry about (referring to global warming, I guess).

And the congregation erupted in a mighty cheer.

I haven’t felt so out of place in a really long time.

It reminded me of services from my youth when the suit-and-tie-bearing preacher would slam his fist on the big fat pulpit while simultaneously decrying the satanic evils of rock-and-roll… always followed by a hearty “AMEN!” from all the Baptists in the hizzouse…

I was mad.

I was mad because no one should ever feel alone in church.

I was mad because I thought he was preaching to the choir not the seeker… not the one really wondering “Am I unique? Do I have value”

I was mad because this particular idea has been a hindrance to the gospel for the past century.

This idea that God’s going to destroy the earth, so why bother trying to save it… that anyone who happens to care is an idolatrous tree-hugger… that any idea remotely associated with “liberalism” should be thrown out with the rest of the stank bathwater…

This idea is poison.

Because it gives man entitlement. We start to think of this earth as “ours.”

and it isn’t ours.

We are just the stewards… If you claim the Genesis story at all… literal, figurative, mythical, philosophical… then you should know that God created man and gave him a job to do…

Take care of this planet.

But instead of taking care of it… treating it like it is someone else’s perfect creation… like it is something that brings honor and glory to that creator…

We’ve exploited it.

The thing is… no matter your political persuasion… no matter your perspective on climate change… no matter your eschatology… you should do everything you can to treat the earth respectfully… and keep her healthy.

Think global warming is just a conspiracy to sell more products in green packaging?… fine! I don’t care…

Think the universe is going to burn in a post-millennial lake-o-fire? Great!

But that doesn’t mean we should trash it now… we’ve still got to live here, you know?

And just because our world will end doesn’t mean we should hasten that day… I mean, your kids are going to die eventually, but you don’t feed them cigarettes for breakfast.

Besides all that… the way we treat the earth has a very direct impact on how we are treating other human beings… but thats another long post for another long day.

When it comes down to it… I am not an environmentalist because of climate change or because I’m trying to save the planet…

But because I am a part of creation… and I’m lucky enough to have been given a job to do.

Take care of this planet.

If you consider yourself Christian you should read (among many other things) Serve God, Save the Planet and Matt Krick’s essay Theology of Ecology.

Today’s post has been my part in a global social change event, Blog Action Day 2009

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