Dear You and Me,
First off, I want to thank all of you for the kind words regarding my letter to the president I chose to send out to all of you. The letter got the biggest and best response of any letter we have ever put out. That being said, I did receive seven emails from people who did not like the letter. As I expected, some people thought the letter was political, some thought I did not believe in Obama, and some people were not happy that I would utilize our list to serve my own agenda.
Here's the deal: the letter was not meant to be political in any way. I wrote it two weeks prior to the election and it was meant to be sent out regardless of the turn out; it was neither for or against any particular candidate or agenda. It was simply stating where I think we are, how I think we got here and where I think we need to go. For the two people who did not like that I would send this out to a list that was created to support a health and beauty line: well, all life, as well as our transparency, has a direct correlation to our overall health and beauty. The main difference behind Pangea and other brands we support is we actually tell you what we believe in. In the end wouldn't you rather know what your dollars are supporting? I would.
That all being said, please note that I respect all of you who took the time to tell me how the letter made you feel. There is no right and no wrong; there is only what we do and what we don't do. The future is not a letter, it's a conversation and I can't have one with out you.
Now for my December letter.....
I was recently enjoying a glass of wine after a long trip during happy hour at my favorite Boulder establishment, The Kitchen. I started up a conversation with a woman at the bar and we got around to talking about what we each did and Pangea came up. Her eyes lit up and she said, "I love Pangea! It's just a little too rich for my blood." Then she went on to tell me about her fabulous culinary vacation in Italy and her tickets to see Madonna. The woman then paid for her $14 glass of wine, grabbed her Prada bag and off she went.
I realized something that I remember journaling about back during my travels in India in 1999. Most of our issues in life can be routed back to our own definitions and the extrapolations of those definitions. What's interesting about this "recession" we are having is that most of us are "protecting" ourselves from it by down trading on our purchase decisions; purchasing less sustainable, socially irresponsible, usually made in third world countries, product. This makes us feel like we are doing the right thing, but actually it is just sharpening the spade for our next hole. If we get good enough at digging all of these holes we're going to get hired as grave diggers.
We need to start defining a plan based in the present with the future in mind. Yes times are tough and everyone is cutting back, but where we cut back is what will determine our future. Now is the time where we need to support small and local. Sure, buy less, but buy for the future as well. We need to rebuild our economy, as in "us" the consumers.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Much love,
Joshua Scott Onysko Founder & CEO Pangea Organics