One of the reasons I left Lush was the sudden stray from their original values. As you might know, Lush prides itself on six foundational values: Fresh, Handmade, Naked, 100% Vegetarian, Ethical Buying, and No Animal Testing. For the most part, these are values I align myself with so working for Lush felt great. Without getting too much into it (I truly don’t know what I should or shouldn’t say here yet), I found Lush straying from their values this past year. Suddenly it wasn’t about either of those six, but instead a new, seventh value: Capitalism. Do I blame Lush for wanting money? No, that’s kind of the only point in life it seems these days. But do I blame Lush for touting values and then turning the other cheek on them because of money? Yeah, I totally do.
I’ve never really thought about my values until working at Lush where talking about “What drives me” is part of the daily conversation, but I’m coming to learn how important knowing your values are. With these values, I have a foundation now. If watching that movie doesn’t align with at least one of these, then why waste my time on it? The same goes for books, shows, activities, entertainment, people, and work. It’s 2021 bitch and I’m going to live my best damn life, just wait and see.
So, for the first time, here are my driving values:
KNOWLEDGE
While probably obvious, continuing to learn, grow, and experience is beyond important to me. I often joke that I want to become a professor because I want to stay in school forever, but really that’s not a joke and instead real life. I find university culture stimulating and where change learns to happen. In conjunction with that, my over-arching goal for my pieces on Shakespeare, mental health, sexuality, movies, books is to share in the knowledge. Would someone’s journey with literature be different if they are taught the real, uncensored works of Shakespeare? I’d like to think so.
PLEASURE
As a child, who else was told that you’re going to have to do things you don’t want to when you grow up? Well, fuck that. I’m done with doing things I don’t want to. I’m done with telling an acquaintance that “I’d love to get coffee!” even though I truly don’t. I’m done with reading books and watching movies that don’t excite me. I’m also done with being afraid/ashamed/embarrassed/quiet about what I do. Zack’s grandmother (a terrific woman) referred to what I’m currently doing as my “women’s studies.” While she’s not wrong, I suppose I am studying women and their problems, I would politely counter her by saying “Yeah, my sexual education training and work in sexuality…” or something to that degree. As a woman from a very different generation, it’s totally understandable that Mimi doesn’t even utter the word “sex” but I will for her. I will for all of you. We must start normalizing sex, genitalia, and pleasure if we want to see any change, even those that don’t have to do with sex because everything, and I mean everything, has to do with sex.
POWER
Have you seen those sheets of values where a bunch of words is listed and, in a short, timed moment, you’re to, without really thinking, identify the words that resound most with you? We’ve done this a few times at Lush (finding your values is a very Lush thing to do) and for some reason Power always ended up on my list. I’d be lying if I said this value didn’t irk me at first. I mean, power? Who am I, a white man? My manager and good friend made me question my anxiety over the word. The way I intend to define power is less about aggression and more about success, legacy, having a working structure and routine, feeling my own creative power building in my gut daily. I want to have a following not just so I can have a following but so I can be sharing my knowledge with like-minded people and hopefully, make someone feel more heard, seen, and understood.
BEAUTY
I’m not necessarily talking beauty on a physical appearance level, though that does fit in here too. I’m more suggesting Beauty as a broad-stroke and a lifestyle. I want to surround myself with art and beauty; I want to live in color and texture. I love pretty things and buying pretty things and looking at pretty things and finding new pretty things. I want to create art and find beauty in unexpected places. I want to bring that beauty to you all too.
STORYTELLING
This is the main goal here. I’ve always been a writer, a storyteller, but that didn’t seem important until now. The point of ATF is to uplift voices, my own included. Everyone deserves to have their story told. I live in the stories of others. I give my friends a platform to speak their truths, I research and discuss century-old stories that have permeated our culture, and I write stories of my own, small and large. I’m not here just to spew Shakespearean facts, though that also happens, but I am here to tell you the story of Romeo and Juliet, the one you haven’t heard.
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