When Academia Meets Real Life – or, “I might be breaking up with Bath and Body Works”

Seth and I went to the mall yesterday. Our intention was to only go into one store, and as we were on our way out of said store, I remembered that I needed some more soap for the bathroom. Now that there are three people living here, we go through hand soap in the bathroom and kitchen a lot faster than usual (especially when I put my roommates favorite smell in the bathroom). So we made the obligatory trek to Bath and Body Works, because honestly, where else to you get pump hand soap, right?! As we walk into the store, the lady hands us a coupon and a sample of their newest scent, “Dark Kiss” or something of that nature. I smelled it and it was WA Y to perfumey for me, so I was just going to give it back when I bought my soap. We walked to the wall o’ soap and proceeded to partake in the 6 for $20 deal – no biggie. Got up to the front and tried to give the dark kiss perfume in a bottle back to the lady in the counter and she was shocked that I was giving something free back to her. I said, “Well, it’s really not close to anything I would ever wear, so you might as well give it to another customer who might”, to which she replied “Or you could give it to someone.” I politely slid it across the counter again and said, “No thank you”. She took it back and we were on our merry way.

Walking back towards the exit, I was literally stopped in my tracks. Low and behold, staring me in the face in the middle of American consumerism at its best was a sign that read:

“STOP SEX TRAFFICKING”

Yes, you read that right. A sign that was actually advocating for people to stand up for something besides the biggest sale. And where, praytell was this beckoning sign posted you might ask? In the window of the Body Shop. The irony of this whole thing was that I had just finished a final paper for my summer quarter on Human Slavery and Human Trafficking in the global economy and society we find ourselves surrounded by today. It was like a wake up call that Jesus was here. That the stuff that I am studying on a purely academic level has broken through to the real world. The Kingdom of Heaven is truly near, my friends.

So we went in and all throughout the store were signs posted on where there products come from, how they believe in natural products, how they know their farmers, etc. Now, don’t be wrong. I know that the young girl I talked to had no idea who the farmer was in Mexico that grew the blue corn for their face mask, but I do believe that she knew her company was part of something bigger than her little store in the Arcadia Mall.

I signed their petition and we made our way towards the door. Seth and I chatted about how revolutionary it was that a business was taking steps toward promoting something worthwhile when we had a radical thought. “What if we took our stuff back and bought from them instead?” Traveling back to my paper, my action plan to bring slavery to an end in my generation was to bring awareness to people around me and for people to using their purchasing power and change their buying habits. Fast forward to the mall – I had the opportunity to use that power to make a statement, literally in my hand. Had I not had such an awkward interaction with the lotion at Bath and Body Works, I would have not given it a second thought. But the doubt started, “What if I get the same girl? She’ll think I am so weird! I am trying to give back the lotion and then I go return soap I just bought 10 minutes ago? What is she going to think of me? Am I a freak?” But then I heard, “Here’s your chance. I’m giving you the opportunity to put your faith into action – to lead people with your own action plan.” So…we took them back and bought some bar soap from the Body Shop instead.

Please don’t think I am telling you that you can’t shop at Bath and Body Works and you have to shop only at the Body Shop for the rest of your life. That’s not what this is about. Maybe that’s what needs to happen for me. Maybe I need to give up my signature White Tea and Ginger *sniff, sniff* in order to find something new there. Maybe I need to break up with Bath and Body Works. This may have been an opportunity for Seth and I to take a leap of faith and take action in a way that we haven’t been pushed yet. It was a time for God to show me that what I am learning in school means so much more than I thought; a time for academia to meet my real life. To put my money where my mind is, so to speak.

In the Body Shop, they are selling hand cream in order to donate money to stop sex trafficking because they believe the power is in our hands to do so. Get it? It’s hand cream because the power is in our hands. But the power doesn’t stop with our hands. It goes to our head, our hearts and eventually in my case, needs to flow out my wallet too. On the days that I am consumed with papers and it seems like all I am using my hands for is to type word after word, page after page, I will take a minute to stop and wash them with my new bar soap – knowing that my studies mean so much more when they break through muck and the mire of my head knowledge to wash and renew my soul.