Heard on the radio today

While I was listening to NPR on the way home tonight, I heard a couple of phrases that clicked.

The first was a discussion with Rachel Louise Snyder about the 55 billion dollar a year global denim industry. I came in late, but she was talking about her time investigating plants overseas. The moderator asked the question about how we can become more conscious consumers (reading labels, finding out where your clothes were made, etc.) She said the first thing to think about is whether how we are living can be sustained. Cotton is a plant that apparently takes a toll on the soil. She mentioned that the average American woman owns eight pairs of jeans. Before you worry about where it came from, start with "do you need another pair of jeans?"

The next one was an interview with a local documentary film maker Ethan Delavan . He has made a film on the difficult (and personal) subject of sexual abuse. He interviewed other victims and was of course asked why he was making the film. He compared his documentary to a poem. He said that in a poem, the format implies that some healing has occurred. I thought that was a great description of poetry.