the rule

This afternoon as I shellacked my eyelashes with a new brand of mascara, I kicked myself for breaking the most fundamental Law of Transitory Faroese Living: Don't buy anything. The well-designed, high quality Scandinavian products that fill Faroese store shelves often tempt me away from this mantra, but my after-purchase rush is always followed by a guilty crash when I remember that the same product bought almost anywhere else in the world would cost anywhere from 30% to 70% less. Case in point: Yesterday I purchased mascara and concealer from The Body Shop. These cosmetic basics are listed for $12 and $15.50 respectively on the Web site, while I paid almost $60 for the exact same items. For that price I could have bought products from virtually any high-end line in the United States. Better yet, I could have just saved $30. This reality makes it hard for Ben and I to fully engage in life here. Even as we work to be present spiritually, intellectually and emotionally, we continually draw away because we know that whatever "it" is can wait to be bought "when we leave," giving our time in the Faroes a temporary feel. Even easier is to order everything but our food through the Internet. With taxes (at least 25%) and shipping included, Amazon.com still offers significant savings. This temptation directly pits our values of supporting the local economy and saving the carbon cost of shipping against our economic reality. -a