George knelt down and extended his rough heavy hand to help me to my feet. I stood upright and breathed in deeply, letting the thin and icy air awaken my senses. Time seemed to slow to a stop and then tentatively move forward again at half pace. Beside me, George’s breath came in abrupt gasps, in through his nose, and out through narrow pursed lips. The sun was setting and it reflected in his goggles, a soft milky orange glow, slowly fading. This was the summit of Mt. Shasta, Washington state, and my best friend and I had climbed all the way to the top, because it was still there.

I threw my arms wide to catch the last of its light, and inside I was singing at the top of my lungs. “HEEEEELLLLLLOOOOoooooo!”

I was 39 years old when they came for us at last. I was surprised that I was as surprised as I was, to be completely honest. I had always half expected we weren’t the only ones in the neighborhood, but it was still a powerful jolt to the nervous system when they revealed themselves to us en masse. It wasn’t so much the “invasion fleet” if that’s what they called it. The mobile phone video of their appearance in our atmosphere had spread rapidly, and we were all in shock, but that was nothing compared to the moment their friends on the ground revealed themselves to us simultaneously, in every human language, over every radio and TV station we had. That’s when we all started to realize that this was more then just an invasion; it was a coup.

Now much has been made of their appearance in the time since the first wave revealed itself to the world 5 years ago. It was almost as if years of bad science fiction had conditioned us to expect bug eyed reptiles with hybrid bumble bee DNA, when what we got was almost exactly the same as us, only “better” somehow. Each a near perfect humanoid specimen, strong and tall, with shining blue eyes and golden hair. Their bright smiles both mesmerized and terrified me. I know I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

The thing is: their arrival signaled a lot of things to a lot of different people. On one hand you had the “Heavens Door”; a cargo cult that worshiped a piece of aluminum foil supposedly found at the wreckage of the crash at Roswell. They were mild mannered, and mostly harmless, which – in a saner universe – might have been a compliment, but in my world it served as more of an indictment. They tended to cluster together in loose communal groups of 10-20 people, and rarely had much contact with outsiders, beyond work. They were technos and coders, and preferred short to medium term contracts with very large corporations. Outsiders weren’t shunned really, but it wasn’t easy to get them to open up about anything – especially when it came to the esoteric beliefs of the inner door.

On the flip side you had the militias. The “Sons of Thunder” and the “Ghosts of the Dawns Early Light” were two of the most well known in the months and years following first contact. They were both splinter groups formed chiefly of ex-soldiers and mercs. Many were politically well connected and held security clearances. They were friendly with the “Lupus Group”; a highly organized private army during the Iraqi Occupation and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Terrodyne Corporation, which seemed to own just about everything else already.

The Sons of Thunder didn’t care for them, any more then I did, the Ghosts of Dawns Early Light were probably working for the bastards before most of us even knew what to call our new “friends”. The human population of the planet fell into a nod for several months. Most people were zombies. There was a lot of booze and a lot of dope used up in the first year. A lot of people stopped going to work. A lot of kids basically dropped out of school. You probably think there was anarchy in the streets, and maybe there was. If it was anarchy, it was the slow motion anarchy of the blockbuster car chase. People were going through some of the motions, but there seemed to be a lot of resistance between “us” and everything we thought we had to “do” to function as a member of society.

It wasn’t long before things started to change politically. They had to, you know?  Nothing was getting done any more, and everyone was doped to the rafters on Plexo and cheap Canadian Whiskey. It took 10 months for beer to jump ahead of bottled water and soda pop on the North American top 3 beverages list. Barnhaus never had such a year before or since, I’ll wager.

“edun LIVE is a an ethical tee-shirt company created by Ali Hewson and Bono” is how their main blurb reads and that is exactly what caught my attention when I first saw it. “What the hell does Bono have to do with tee-shirts?” I speculated. “And just who the hell is Ali Hewson?”

A little digging helped put it all in perspective of course. With apologies to Bono; – I mostly love your music of course, but had not previously paid any attention to your marital status. I found out that edun LIVE is an tee-shirt company who specialized in organic tee shirts which are made of 100% combed African cotton, so you know — these tee-shirts are “extra soft and delightfully smooth”.

If this is starting to sound like a commercial, then give yourself a cookie because — it is. We are proud to be affiliated with edun LIVE because we like their mission. Keep the capitalization of African cotton where it is needed most: In Sub Saharan Africa. According to their FAQ:

edun LIVE is not a charity, it is a for-profit business. Via a successful economic business model driven by high-volume sales, it is edun LIVE’s mission to provide long-term sustainable employment in developing countries to help foster economic growth rather than provide charity.

and

edun LIVE has a triple bottom line, which means edun LIVE’s decision to do business with a factory is not based only on price and margin – it is also based on the resulting social and environmental impact. edun LIVE is focused on providing a deeper commitment by working with the factories to grow their capabilities so they are a viable resource, not only for edun LIVE, but also for other brands.

Now, Bono doesn’t need my endorsement, or our affiliation. But I wanted to draw some attention indirectly to a relatively new concept in business. I like to call it “For Profit — with a Mission”. This is a concept that involves making money for yourself or your shareholders without being a miserable fucking prick to the environment around you, or the people who work for — and make their living supporting — your corporation.

This is an important but difficult concept for some, but only because they are indoctrinated into a paradigm of uselessly irrational expectations by the popular culture which encourages consumerism by marginalizing anything lower then yourself on the food chain. Let me give it to you without the buzzwords for a moment: Profit is good, and having a society worth living in is also good, and it is up to each of us to make it “come into being” daily.

I don’t know if business like edun LIVE is the harbinger of something good, or not. But I do know that there is a tremendous business value in considering more then just the bottom line, while not losing sight of it.

With apologies to Ali Hewson.

Dex out

These blank t-shirts help create jobs in Africa.