Home Alone

In the 1990 movie "Home Alone" Kevin McCallister is left alone in his Chicago neighborhood for three days. As the story line goes, the McCallister family, with some extended family are heading to Paris a few days before Christmas to spend time with another family member. The power goes out overnight, causing them to wake up late and almost miss their airport shuttle. In the ruckus, eight year old Kevin, who everybody complained about the night before, is left behind.  When Kevin is sent to bed by his mom on the night before the trip, he says, in a way only an eight year old can do, that he did not want to see her or his family again. For the first day alone, he is pretty happy, but later his Christmas wish is for his family to come back. What is interesting is that the basic plot mirrors the Gospel account for Holy Family Sunday. In the Gospel account of Luke, when Jesus was 12 years of age the family traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. 

Painting of Mary finding Jesus in 
the Temple at age 12

Like many observant Jews, Mary and her husband Joseph would travel to Jerusalem for the spring Passover and related celebrations.  At the time, the main temple was in what is now a Muslim site, Dome of the Rock. The Wailing Wall is the west wall of the old temple. With all the crowds departing  after the festival, Joseph and Mary left for Nazareth and Jesus, somehow unbeknownst to them, stayed behind.  According to Fr Stephen Brunner on Sunday, December 26, Jesus stayed behind at the command of his father, and he obeyed his father--God. Today, if a child was left behind parenting skills would be questioned and the child likely placed with Child Protective Services for a time while things get sorted out. Charges of neglect may even be filed. Kevin McCallister did not meet this fate due to his smarts of avoiding questions from inquiring minds, like the grocery store clerk.

Dome of the Rock, onsite of Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
Photo by author

Jesus' inquiring mind had him, for the few days that his parents searched for him, in the temple where he was being instructed and instructing. Luke says: "After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers." Here we have a father  (the big guy in heaven) who apparently directed his son to stay behind in the temple, as his mom and step father left and traveled at least several hours if not a day (not unlike Kevin's family) before they realized he was not to be found in the Nazareth bound caravan. Why would God put Mary and Joseph through that? Was there a miscommunication? God could have sent Gabriel, or some other angel to Joe and Mary with a message to allow Jesus to stay behind. Or--why did Jesus tell them he had learning and instructing to do in the temple, authorized by God?  If I had allowed one of our sons to stay longer, at say an out of town camping trip, and I did not tell my wife, within the few minutes, (Yes, with a Momma Bear it would be minutes not hours, and certainly not days) it took her to notice he was gone when he should have been home, I would have been in a deep, very deep pile of manure, to be more exact the pile without the straw. And no paddle. But, I am not God, and God can apparently get away with it,  because, well being God. The other thing, while Mary gave birth to Jesus, she was not his spouse. God does not have a spouse. Hence, his dynamics are quite different from mine as I have a spouse to answer to.

Home Alone advertisement

Then there is the ending where Luke is trying to make sure we all understand that Jesus was never disobedient, or disobedient after this event. Luke phrases it this way: "Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them." I think God allowed Jesus to have a lower bar to qualify as disobedient. Its a good thing he was obedient from then on, because how would Joseph and Mary ever punish him? After all he is God made flesh. I think purposefully going missing for three days at age 12 counts for a whole childhood of disobedience. 

Mary, the mother of Christ, also has an interesting take on what the situation meant to her; Luke puts it this way: "But his mother treasured all these things in her heart." She is obviously a saint, because I find it hard to believe most mothers would suggest that a pre-pubescent boy missing for three days is a thing to treasure. A mother would be more than upset about this type of incident. A mother would remember, but I doubt she would treasure the event. She may be proud of her son at the temple and how he surprised the learned on his knowledge of scripture, but the whole thing of him going AWOL for three days is a big red flag. If I had failed to tell my wife, as outlined above, that incident would be not so much be treasured in her heart as tucked in her mind to be brought out again and again, when she saw fit. 

While Christ is getting instructed and instructing the rabbis with his erudite answers and extensive knowledge of the Jewish scriptures, Kevin McCallister two millennia later is setting traps for burglars. Yet, as Kevin makes his way around his wealthy neighborhood, this young boy is assisted by people on the lower rung of the economic ladder--a store clerk; a guy in a Santa suit with a parking ticket on his car, but who gives Kevin the last thing he has in his pocket--a tic-tac. Kevin also meets the next door neighbor in church as a choir practices O Holy Night and finds the neighbor is not the serial killer his older brother made him out to be. The man is estranged from his adult son and Kevin suggests he call the son and invite him over the next day--which he does, and the son and his family arrives on Christmas Day. Kevin's family also find their way home. Kevin's mom finagles her way to an evening flight, not wanting to take the available morning flight, and by a series of odd flights goes south then north and ends up in Scranton. But, she cannot get to Chicago from Scranton, until a Polka Band from Wisconsin offers to give her a ride in a Budget Rental truck and offer to drop her off on the way to Milwaukee. After all, that is what Polka band people from Wisconsin do. Kevin is a little put off the rest of the family is not with her. The Dad and the rest of the kids arrive just after the mom, by a much less taxing, and polkaing, way. 

Home that served as McCallister House in Movie

Kevin can be forgiven for being home alone because it was not his fault he was left unaccounted for in a full house. He was still up in bed and no one thought to wake him. But, I cannot say the same about Jesus. Jesus bears, in my mind, some responsibility for not having let his parent know his intentions to stay a few more days, or at least to ask if they all can stay back. As Jesus is part of the Holy Trinity, I don't think Mary and Joseph could say "No" to him. With this interplay, I will now read/hear the passage from Luke, and see "Home Alone" in a different light. 

Unless otherwise noted, images from Google.

Not at the Inn

Over 2,000 years ago there was a small town in Judea with with a then population of about 300 persons. During one week, late in the year, it had a great deal more people due to a census being undertaken by the Roman authorities. Apparently the census record did not survive so we could have an actual accounting of the total population of the small town. Bethlehem.  Bethlehem is still small by today's standards with a 2017 population of about 28,000. As we all know Bethlehem achieved notoriety as the birthplace of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Luke gives the most famous account of the birth of Christ. This post will be about one aspect of the birth of Christ--his birth not occurring at the inn in Bethlehem.

Purported place of Birth of Christ
Church of the Nativity

Most of us are familiar with this very basic exhortation from the Gospel of Luke: Mary "gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" Some translations replace "inn" with where "traveler's lodged", or "guest room", but the meaning is the same-- there was no space for the couple at the bed and breakfast, or Budget Inn. To get around in this era most people walked, so towns, or rest stops, were generally not more than about five or six miles apart. Joseph and his new, and young wife, Mary, traveled about 70 miles south from Nazareth to reach Bethlehem for a census ordered by Caesar Augustus. The small community was overflowing with people to be counted.

View of part of Church of the Nativity

Joseph and Mary arrived for the census, and sometime later they attempted to find a place to spend the night. But, as one could expect with a census going on, there is no extra lodging available. I have long wondered why the innkeeper did not give up his room or perhaps ask one of the room holders if they may be willing to accommodate a pregnant woman and her partner. As we know no one gave up their room, or offered a room in their house. I always thought the innkeeper was a poster child of the uncharitable by failing to give up his room. After all, on his doorstep is a  man, and a very pregnant woman, and even I would have enough sense to recognize the situation. Mary being the Virgin picked by God, perhaps showed no signs of pending birth, other than her large tummy.  Did she have labor pains?  Had God kept her from the "minor discomfort" of birthing a child (the term "minor discomfort was used by a doctor in one our birth preparation classes 30 years ago)? For years, in my mind, I have questioned the innkeeper's actions. If one believes that God plans all things, then God knew they would not find room at the inn and hence why put the innkeeper to blame? If given some sense of free will to act, then yes, some of the innkeeper's actions need to be questioned.

Manger Square

Some argue that Mary probably had more privacy in a stable, as inns at the time were crowded and not very comfortable places; there is no indication this statement came from the Hospitality Association. The question also arises as to why Joseph and Mary did not stay with relatives? (Were all the Airbnb's booked?) After all, Joseph was from the house and lineage of David, which persons had to report to Bethlehem, according to the Gospel. Perhaps the relatives had all moved out of Bethlehem by that point in time; second, maybe any relatives who lived there were already full with other relatives; or maybe they did not wish to put up a relative involved in scandal. Think about it, here was Joe with a pregnant teenage girl, who had a child conceived before they were married. Premarital intercourse, and of course such a pregnancy that results, was an event of extreme scandal. How many relatives would have thought that God had a hand in the pregnancy, and that Joseph was told to marry her?

Manger Square in later afternoon

 

Thus, did Joe have relatives who shunned him and his new wife? The innkeeper did not have a room available, but he did have a place where animals stayed, commonly referred to as a stable. The stable was likely a cave in the limestone rock common to this area. Bethlehem had a great deal of limestone and rock outcroppings.  Interaction with water dissolves the main component of the rock resulting in crevices and caves. When I first thought about writing a blog post on the matter, I was going to go after the innkeeper, for not being, well Christian, before Christianity. But, then, looking through some old information from my parents I came across a set of six typed cards, probably from many years ago, when at least one of them was in school. The index cards contained the verses to a poem by Joyce Kilmer (he of the poems "Trees" and the "Rouge Bouquet") titled: "Gates and Doors." (While undated, some date the poem to 1912 or 1913.)

Moon over street behind Church of the Nativity

This poem threw everything I was thinking about upside down. Kilmer, who died at age 31 in 1918 while serving in what we now refer to as WWI, makes positive references to the innkeeper. In the first stanza he writes: 

There was a gentle hostler
     (And blessed be his name)
He opened up the stable
     The night Our Lady came.
Our Lady and Saint Joseph,
     He gave them food and bed
And Jesus Christ has given him
     A glory around his head.

He credits the innkeeper for at least letting them stay in the stable, rather than dissing the person. Later in the poem, in the third stanza, he writes of the innkeeper in a similar positive manner:

There was a courteous hostler 

      (He is in Heaven to-night)

He held our Lady's bridle

      And helped her to alight;

He spread clean straw before her

     Whereon she might lie down,

And Jesus Christ has given him

     An everlasting crown.

 And in the fifth stanza he has this to say:

There was a joyous hostler
     who knelt on Christmas morn
Beside the radiant manger
     Wherein his Lord was born.
His heart was full of laughter,
     His soul was full of bliss
When Jesus, on his Mother's lap,
     Gave him His hand to kiss.

Rather than focus on the fact that the innkeeper did not give his room, or kick someone out of a room, Kilmer takes some poetic license and praises the innkeeper for what he did do, giving them space in the stable. I have to say, I never thought of giving the hostler an everlasting crown, much less any credit at all. My wife says I well live up to my name sake, St Thomas--he who doubts. What Kilmer shows is that I, like many of us, look to faults rather than positives (although I still don't think there were many positives about the Packer special team performance against the Bears on Sunday night, Dec 12, or again on Sunday Dec 19 against the Ravens. I guess Mason Crosby not missing an extra point in the past couple games is a good thing for the Packers).

Kilmer could have left the poem with a story about the young couple and what the hostler did. But, his even numbered stanzas stand by making demands of us. Here is the second stanza: 

So let the gate swing open
     However poor the yard,
Lest weary people visit you
     And find their passage barred;
Unlatch the door at midnight
     And let your lantern's glow
Shine out to guide the traveler's feet
     To you across the snow.

Then we are met with the fourth stanza, which we could interpret as meaning only the birth of Jesus as the guest, but a wider interpretation may be more appropriate. The fourth stanza asks of us to unlock our door:

Unlock the door this evening
     And let your gate swing wide,
Let all who ask for shelter
     Come speedily inside.
What if your yard be narrow?
     What if your house be small?
There is a Guest is coming
    Will glorify it all.

Why leave open a door given our times of break-ins, smash and grabs and car thefts? As Pope Francis says, "don't let fear keep you from welcoming a stranger." We all have our justifiable fears in this day and age and welcoming strangers may be something we all would question. In the final stanza the Pope and Kilmer seem to be on the same page. A wider reading of this stanza would be one directing us to not just literally unlock the door and open the gate, but do that for our hearts and our soul for the Christ child. By doing so for Christ, we do it for all.

Unbar your heart this evening

     And keep no strangers out,

Take from your soul's great portal

     The barrier of doubt.

To humble folk and weary

     Give heart welcoming,

Your breast shall be to-morrow

     The cradle of a King.

Instead of focusing on what the innkeeper did not do, Kilmer focuses on what he did do to assist the young couple. I guess he should not be disparaged, as I originally thought, because he did do something. What is interesting is that Kilmer juxtaposes the action of the innkeeper (the odd numbered stanzas) with the even numbered stanzas which focus on us--he asks us to keep our doors and gates open, and in doing so we may not what goodness we may find. 

Nativity Set

However, the stanzas related to us could be metaphorical--that is beyond the literal meaning, it may also mean that we have to make room at our own inn--our own heart for Christ the Savior.  This comes to me from the first part of the last stanza--"Unbar your heart this evening"; this is followed up slightly later with "Take from your soul's great portal, the barrier of doubt." In doing so, we should look to others, for giving rather than receiving, for service rather than obtaining. As Eric Hollis, OSB wrote earlier this week: In the best season of the year there is no gift more thoughtful than an extra dollop of love for those who need it most." 

Shepherd's Fields were located in this area

That is the story of lodging on the first Christmas in a small Judean town. I think I would do well to recall how Joyce Kilmer looked at the positive aspect of the hosteler lending his stable for the birth of Christ.  As much as I try I am not sure there is a positive message in the Packer special team play this season. Christ was not born at the inn, but being born in a stable was more consistent with his overall message of assisting the poor and the downtrodden--of which there are many--people who lost love ones in Waukesha, senseless violence in our streets and stores, lives lost to natural disaster, and refugees seeking a better life--not unlike those from Afghanistan. Kilmer  suggests that we need to open the door, or gate, to our own heart to allow the love of Christ to enter. So, while there may not have been room at the inn for the birth of Jesus, we need to open our hearts and let Jesus in. That is the real lesson of Christmas. What did not happen at the Inn is really not the important part, the important part is the lesson we learn about letting Christ In.

What's with the O's

We are now, on 14 Dec,  eleven days before Christmas. Since the start of Advent, the spouse and I have been listening to Christmas music--as we drive and as we do many varied chores in the house, and as I write this. We are nearing the shortest day of the year, and the late sunrise and early sunset make one want to get the most out of their day, and listening to Christmas music can give a lift during these times of darkness and short days. Christmas music is often nostalgic, some say it has us look back to what we viewed as simpler times--our childhoods. The most popular Christmas music today are often songs recorded by fabled artists of generations gone past--Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathias, and others. Listening to Christmas music got me wondering what is up with all of the O's in Christmas hymns?  Given this popularity, it is mainly seasoned citizens like my wife who listen to the music. 

Nativity Set
Author photo

Let me count the O's just in Christmas hymns of which I am familiar. O Holy Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, O Christmas Tree (aka O Tannenbaum), O Come all Ye Faithful (aka Adeste Fideles) and of course the one that outdoes the others, with O's, O Come O Come Emmanuel (albeit more an Advent hymn). I guess the O is a nice introduction to these pieces. Holy Night, as a title, or at the beginning of the first line to the hymn just does not have the same ring to it as does O Holy Night. Although I am probably used to it with the O so without the O it sounds strange. The same could be said for the other songs I have identified. I am sure I have missed some of the songs that begin with O. 

Most of the O songs, like Christmas hymns in general, seem to be an invitation, welcoming us to an event, or at least participation in the song and invite us to a relationship with Jesus Christ. However, there is one that is rather unique and stands out from the rest. This hymn is about Advent and not about Christmas.  That song is O Come O Come Emmanuel. 

Most Christmas music lifts one up, and instills wonder and joy in the senses and the depths of sould.  But, O Come O Come Emmanuel is different, it has a mysterious type quality to its music and in its cadence of a "quiet persistent speed" (J McDermott, source #2). This mysterious nature, in my opinion, is enhanced even more when played on an organ. More than any other instrument, the organ can express a variety of emotions--joy, mystery, and even death knells.  O Come O Come Emmanuel is, to me, rather different from the other hymns noted (and most Christmas hymns), which invite us to Christ, in this we are inviting Jesus to us.  O Come O Come Emmanuel is also one of the oldest of Christmas pieces, although not in the iteration to which we most enjoy. The English translation was translated from Latin and arranged by an Anglican priest in the mid to late 1800's. The piece comes from he O Antiphons of the early Christian-Catholic Church. Yet, the English and other translations do not do the full hymn justice as what exists in the original Latin, particularly the call and response. Showing the strength of mind of the early creators of the O Antiphons, when you take the first (in Latin) letter of the first word of each of the seven, and go from last to first, it spells out ERO CRAS, which means "I am coming." I doubt this is accidental, although it may not be the monk mind as much as the Holy Spirit was at work. Overall, I find the O Antiphons speaking of Advent in a curious sort of way.

Four of Seven O Antiphons as
painted by Sr Ansgar Holmberg
From Source #1, below

The O' Antiphons have been around at least since the sixth century, and possibly longer since the earliest mention in writing dates to that century. To be mentioned in a sixth century document, they obviously existed at that point, but that does not rule out them having existed prior to being placed  in writing.  As Simca Fisher has written in "America Magazine" (source #1) "The O Antiphons are a series of seven verses dating from the sixth century and prayed during vespers during the last week of Advent. Each antiphon is a name of Jesus taken from Scripture...."  The last of the seven O Antiphons uses Emmanuel and is the basis for the name Emmanuel in this classic Advent hymn.  Yet, this hymn captures the other six days of the O Antiphons in its lyrics. The O Antiphons, in a monastic sense, are generally chanted one on each day for seven straight days starting on Dec 17. 

O Antiphons 
Source:  Google Images

As joyfully expressive as most Christmas hymns are--they provide us an invitation to think, celebrate, and engage the Christ child, why does a hymn with such a mysterious melodic nature engage us to invite Christ to our lives?  With our time of anticipation and preparation inherent in the Advent season, why does Emmanuel speak to that?  I think part of is because we all find Advent to be a bit mysterious. Each of us looks to advent in a different way, whereas Christmas is for many very similar--celebrating with family and friends and sharing of gifts as an expression of appreciation. A Baylor University document (2010) had this to say about the hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel, and you will notice it uses the word haunting. 

These seven prayers—the Great Antiphons, or O Antiphons—are among the richest treasures of Advent. With a montage of haunting (bold by author) biblical images of creation, redemption, and ultimate restoration they remind us that Christ, whose glorious return we anticipate and patiently await during Advent, is surrounding and sustaining us already. He is truly Emmanuel, “God among us,” for he is at once the wisdom who creates and orders the universe, the lawgiver who establishes righteousness through Israel and the Church, the redeemer who has overcome death and rescued his creation from sin, and the great king who is drawing his children from every nation and restoring them in love.

What is most unique about Advent is the paradox that it provides. One the one hand we are in preparation as we look forward to the celebration of the birth of Christ, and asking Christ to come to us, but on the other hand, Christ is already with us.   

Christmas Tree
Author photo

We now return to the use of O. I think the purpose of the O's as the first word in each title is to invite us to listen with our minds and hearts. Each hymn, with an O, and other hymns as well, give us a story, but we are engaged in more than a story--we are engaged in a way of living. That invitation to engage in a story that is in itself a mystery and is dependent on faith. When looking at  O Come O Come Emmanuel, I think of the mysterious, haunting, nature of both lyrics and music. They engage the human mind and soul because they speak to the mystery of the paradox of advent, and the Christ Child. There are some things some of us take on a matter of faith--one being the nature of the savior.  That is the mystery that we celebrate on Christmas Day, that God so loved the world that he sent his only child. We celebrate the use of O's because they represent an invitation, and celebration of that most special of occasions. 

Sources:  

1. https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/12/22/advent-o-antiphon-paintings-239567  

2. https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2021/12/03/o-come-o-come-emanuel-history-241963 

3. https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/125498.pdf

After Life of Clothes

I suspect most of the readers of this blog donate, or have donated, clothing to one of the many second-hand stores that operate within the bounty of these United States. Marie Kondo, de-clutterer extraordinaire, has started a craze of Americans looking at a piece of clothing, or another item, and asking themselves if it "Sparks Joy."  If it sparks joy you keep it, if not, you get rid of it. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not.  For example, an old wool hat may not spark joy during spring cleaning, but in the blustery winter it could be just what the head ordered. This blog post will be about the after life of clothes, and some rather disheartening statistics on second-hand store clothing and online purchases.  The after life of clothes is not always what we think it is.

Warehouse with bales of clothing
Source:  Google Images

Many Americans often go for what is currently in fashion, and discard or donate what is no longer in fashion.  I tend to not have this problem, since I have clothes that I wore as a teenager that I still wear. I may be out of style at times, but as readers know, I fancy myself on being ahead of the trends. For example, take distressed jeans that has yet to "go out of style" for many persons.  My jeans get distressed from wear. The last thing I want is to buy a pair of distressed jeans--brand new.  My wear is most common the knees.  I have jeans that my spouse has repaired three or more times--sometimes in the same spot. At some point they become no longer worthy to wear, and are discarded. You know we live in a land of too much money when people buy purposely ripped and torn jeans from a major retailer. I mean, how much wear can they get with holes in the knees or the thighs?  

Distressed Jeans sold at Retailer
I would be happy to sell my used
jeans distressed by actual wear to someone
I did not know my worn jeans would be so cool.

The thing is clothing wears out, and as I have come to observe, even at some point it is no longer worth repairing. Some old clothing we use for rags. My wife re-purposes t-shirts for people by making t-shirt quilts, or for making bears. She also uses scraps of material to make quilts. She evens the pieces, sews the together, and makes a quilt that she donates to varied places--from Hospice to children respite centers. At some point clothes need to get thrown out, due to wear.  What would be nice if someone could come up with a way to use worn clothing, so it does not have to go into a landfill. Some places the clothing is used, but it is not like we can put worn clothing in our recycling container. I recall Tri-North Builders office building in Fitchburg used insulation made of old blue jeans.  What a good measure to re-purpose used clothes.

Bears made by my wife for a person
using old T-Shirts
Author photo

As you Marie Kondo your clothes it may be wise to keep this blog post in mind. According to greenamerica.org, the United States generates 16 million tons of textile waste a year, or about 6% of overall municipal waste (by comparison, plastics disposed of in landfills make up about 13%). Of this amount about 2.5 million tons gets recycled, three million tons are incinerated, and 10 million get sent to landfills.  A smaller amount, about 700,000 tons, they say, is sent overseas.  On trips to Mexico, Africa and the Mid-East I saw plenty of persons dressed in what was probably discarded US clothes. That earlier mentioned website notes that for Goodwill stores, clothing remains in the store for about four weeks before being moved to outlets which sell clothes for 99 cents per pound. Some are sent to recycling centers.  However, a Nov 25, 2021 article in the National Catholic Reporter noted that about 20% of the clothing at second-hand stores is actually sold at a secondhand store. Quoting from a Fashionista site, from 2014, this article notes that 11%, or about 22 million pounds of clothing donated to Goodwill was not fit for sale, and were discarded in landfills. This is old data (being from 2014), but calls into question where the non-usable clothes actually go.  

Over the past 12 years, I have been in Jaurez, Mexico, the Mid-East, and Africa. At each location I  visited at least one market.  I saw retailers selling used American clothing alongside locally made clothing. The value of American clothes sent overseas is said to over $720 million annually. Here we think we are doing well donating clothes, but so many end up overseas, and we often think of that as a good thing. Yet, the founder of the OR foundation, as reported by NCR, cites one market in Ghana and the challenges used clothing pose. At the Kantamanto Market in Ghana, this market, like others in the developing world, the clothing retailers will take out loans, often at 35% interest to buy bales of clothing for them to sell. It is further noted that only about 20% of these retailers make any profit, meaning 80% have taken on a risk that produces no positive return. The NCR article refers to this as "unjust risk." Elizabeth Ricketts of the OR Foundation notes that these donated clothes which often travel halfway across the world, has a large environmental cost, as 40% of the clothing sold at the market (about 40 million items of clothing are sold at Kantamanto every quarter) is burned, ends up in the gutter, or more likely dumped in in informal settlements where vulnerable people live. It poses a deep dilemma. Ricketts also notes that such cheap clothing causes issues with local persons who make and sell clothing as they cannot compete with the prices for used verse new clothing.  Hence, they have no way to develop local textile manufacturers. Many developing countries still depend on individual producers and merchants.  

One of many quilts my wife makes 
with pieces of left over fabric
Donates to varied Charities
Author photo

Given the amount of clothes discarded to landfills in the US, it is certainly better to donate, but if a large percent of donated clothing is discarded anyway on the receiving end, what has been accomplished?  Less space in a US landfill, but an environmental cost somewhere else. 

Third World Market with clothing bales
Source:  Google images

Then there are the big online retailers. This figure is staggering: over 30% of online purchases are returned to the place from which it was purchased, think Amazon. Of clothing purchased on line, about half, that is 50%, is returned.   If you think the current supply chain is a problem, there is a bigger problem with returns, as little exists in the backward supply chain. Clothes are often simply discarded since there is little value in the item making its way back through the system. Part of Amazon returns are sold to secondary e-commerce sites, like liquidation.com. Yet, Business Insider reports that studies have shown they destroy millions of items a year. I don't think Jeff Bezos cares much about this issue, as he sits on his exorbitantly sized yacht in the ocean. I recall ordering a book to give as a gift, and we returned the book three times, because each of the books had thick black magic marker line along the side.  Even though the calls to Amazon made it clear we did not want a book with such a mark to give as a gift, they kept sending a different book with the same issue (the marks were all in different places so I knew it was not the same book being recycled back to us). 

US Textile Waste
Source; greenamerica.org

So, what to do? First, I think the best thing is to not buy clothing online, unless you know it will fit and be what you want. Second, per the NCR article, choose items that will last, and consume less.  Consuming less means we do not have as much to donate, particularly when the item does not spark joy.  As for me, perhaps it means, I should have those jeans repaired a fifth time. If someone wants some distressed jeans they can come to my house, and buy a pair--at a reasonable price. We live in a society which produces too much and allows us to spend too much, when we need to be more conservation minded.  Being conservation minded, or perhaps frugal, is good all the way around. Next time you look to buy clothes, think of the after life of the clothes once they no longer meet the Marie Kondo test. In a sense when we purchase we should think of the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The after life clothes is to important to not think about what is purchased.