by Walney on July 10, 2010
In a variety of social media, it’s fascinating to see how many people talk about having taken the weekend “off” and gone completely offline – even more fascinating is how every one of them then goes on to explain how refreshing and wonderful it was.
As a micro-business owner, the bulk of the responsibilities (if not all) fall to you and therefore it’s very often hard to take a break because of the fear that something will fall through the cracks or a great opportunity will be missed. While it’s easy to feel this way, stepping away from the business (and your computer) will most likely assist you in your efficiency because every person’s brain and spirit needs a break.
While I will not stop thinking about my business entirely, I have decided to close my shop as well as go offline until late August. It’s time to enjoy all that Summer in California has to offer as well as use this downtime to let my brain wander and see what happens.
I wish everyone a great rest of the Summer and look forward to our discussions when I return.
- Whimsical Walney
by Walney on June 27, 2010
I got a call from a friend today who was upset because of an exchange she had a local farmer’s market: an older woman had reprimanded her for not “watching her child” (who was less than an arm’s reach away) because the little one had stepped on this woman’s foot and gotten it dirty.
It wasn’t on purpose, and from what my friend could tell, there was some mushed fruit already on the ground and this woman was standing far too close to them for her not to get stepped on, especially by a child who could only see her knee cap. She snapped at my friend and was aggravated because she didn’t want to walk around with, “some *rude word deleted* because some KID stepped on her foot.”
After hanging up, I thought about this exchange for a little while and how there are people in the world who not only don’t like children (their prerogative), but don’t even feel that they are entitled to the small space they inhabit on this earth (not their prerogative).
And once again I am reminded about how there are so many parallel situations in life, because my friend’s experience is a great analogy to what’s happening to small batch manufacturers at the hands of CPSIA. The very companies that celebrate children are threatened by a law that not only doesn’t want to acknowledge that their needs are different from larger companies (the “adults”) but also doesn’t feel they have the right to have needs. Politicians don’t want to bother with the *rude word deleted* they might get on their shoes due to their own poorly thought out actions.
This has to end. It’s time for our representatives in Washington to stop acting like this old woman who snapped at my friend today and start behaving like adults who recognize that their constituents encompass all ‘ages’ and therefore have a host of different needs – all of which should be met.
Amend the CPSIA.
