EDOM 7
peacing it together • a serendipitous sale • Council 9 up next
Welcome to the 7th issue of Each Day, One More, the official newsletter of the Magical Office of Peace.
In this issue we have:
peacing it together: an update on the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ web store
a serendipitous sale: the story of the first ‘‘‘pw’’’ sale
Council 9: the next Council will be held on Wednesday, 7 February, 2024
how you can help: website feedback please!
peacing it together
Bit by bit, peace by peace, the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ webstore is coming together. First I had to actually make physical clothing items to line the official ‘‘‘pw’’’ closet1. We’re now at nineteen peaces of ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’! One peace has been sold (as alluded to in EDOM 6, and expounded upon below), and I gave four peaces as Christmas gifts to my now tie-dye-clad family.
And behold, there’s an online catalog! You can see a picture of each peace next to its number, size, and associated information. Peaces that are for sale have a white background, and peaces that have mun associated with them (aka “peace patrons”*) are on a black background.
Now, if you click/tap on a shirt in the catalog, you go to a page just about that particular peace. It’s got extra pictures, and has standard info you would expect for a garment, like size and material. It’s also got (or will get—the template is still under construction) some info that helps tell the story of how that peace came to be. It will include the date it was made/dyed/modified (aka the “fab date”), the “SESH” number which connects a peace with its fabrication-siblings2, and the artist who made the peace (in all cases so far it’s me).
I think of the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ catalog as a wall of honor for supporters of the Magical Office of Peace. When somemun buys a peace of ‘‘‘pw’’’, they are honored with their name (digitally) etched in a (digital) brick. The brick is the individual web page for that peace that they just got. Also on this page I plan to include a “peace message.” If they would like, the peace patron may make a brief (one to two sentences of ordinary length) message of a peaceful nature directed to the entirety of humunkind. Also also included are notes made by the MOOP (i.e., me), the date patronage was assumed, and any money exchanged.
One of the points of recording this info on the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ wall is to create a personal experience that is more than a transaction. When I sell a peace of ‘‘‘pw’’’, I want to create a personal bond with the patron. While I don’t expect to make intimate, lasting friends with everyone who buys a shirt, I do want to at least know their name. I’m also hoping that peace patrons might find connection to each other.
Now that we have the catalog, the next step is to make a digital storefront so the peaces are actually buy-able online. I tried using the service that hosts the moop.earth website (Webflow), with the hopes that I could make the catalog and the shop one single digital database. But I wasn’t able to make it work like I wanted, so instead I’m going to host the catalog—which will contain info on all ‘‘‘pw’’’ items—where it is now, and will host the shop—which will just be peaces that are for sale—on a separate platform (i.e. Shopify). The shop is not yet complete, but I’m hopeful it’ll work out just fine.
In related news, the MOOP now has its own bank account. I just made the first purchase on its debit card: ten white t-shirts. Hooray.
www.moop.earth/peacewhere/catalog
a serendipitous sale
In Each Day, One More issue 6, I alluded to a serendipitous sale of the first peace of ‘’’peacewhere’’’. For those of you trembling in anticipation for the last five weeks will now be relieved of your dramatic tension, as I will tell the story now.
On the 17th of December, I did not do laundry. I had some time in the evening to do it, but with unusual decisiveness, I decided that laundry was the kind of activity that would be best done tomorrow. I don’t remember what I did instead, but presumably it was more interesting than washing clothes. And so the world turned, the sun rose and the phenomenon previously understood as the comfortably distant “tomorrow” had morphed into an unrecognizable, responsibility-laden monstrosity called “today”.
So I did laundry. On my way to the machines, not thirty seconds from stepping outside my door, I met two people: Jenny and Richard. About five minutes later, Jenny and I were in embrace with tears in our eyes.
They were sitting outside a neighbor’s unit. As I walked past, they said they liked my shirt. As odds would have it (and the odds were very good) I happened to be wearing a black and white tie-dye t-shirt. Considering that some of the items stuffed into my giant ikea bag were also black and white tie-dye t-shirts I had recently dyed, I thought it poignant to mention that I had shirts for sale. They erupted in enthusiasm—peppering me with questions of how much the shirts cost, how to buy them, and what the website was. I was shocked, but delighted by the inquisitive frenzy. We managed to figure out that Jenny could get me money through venmo, and I could get her a shirt from my apartment thirty seconds away. As I am a firm believer in formality, I cut some cardstock and hand wrote an official certificate of authenticity with her name, the date, my signature and a MOOP stamp. I gave it to her along with Peace 3. And that was the first sale.
What made the sale serendipitous—beyond its surprise—was how the three of us crystallized our connection so quickly. After we figured out the details of the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ exchange, Jenny and Richard told me that they were grieving a friend’s recent death. Without my prompting, they beamed an emotional spirit like a firehose of joy and pain. Quite fortunately, I felt completely at ease to receive and hold their spirit without spilling a drop. Neither under- nor over-, I was perfectly whelmed. I think it was Richard who first mentioned serendipity. They felt like meeting me at this specific point in their lives was a sign for good things. It wasn't until days later that I realized it had been serendipitous for me too: I wanted ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ to be about personal connection, and that’s exactly what happened for the first sale. It’s hard to imagine a better story to start with.
Council 9
Come join the next council! Councils are online, open meetings where we discuss MOOP matters.
In the next Council we will go over the plan to sell ‘‘‘pw’’’ in person. We’ll also take our first look at the MOOP’s shiny new bank account. And I’ll propose a new conversation-based format for the Councils.
Wednesday, 7 February 2024
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST
hosted on the MOOP Discord server
how you can help me out
Hey! Thanks for reading this newsletter. I sure do appreciate your attention. It helps knowing that you care.
Another way you can help me out is visit the MOOP homepage and the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ catalog and let me know how it looks. I designed both for both desktop and mobile, and I would love to know your user experience like?
Thank you!
- Stephen James
The closet is currently a plastic bin.
Fabrication-siblings are other peaces that were made at the same time.