Take me home tonight ⇔ Assignment 4B
I will be creating a website called "Let go let". It will be a fictitious t-shirt company web site that sells a desirable, high quality t-shirt line with a message for celebrating life and letting go. The main theme of the site is letting go. As you have no doubt probably already gathered, the idea comes from the phrase "let go, let God". In a preliminary search, I have yet to discover the origin of the phrase "let go, let..." but the general idea is that you let go of whatever is holding you back from moving forward. While the origin of the phrase seems to have come out of Christianity, the idea has been used widely in a number of arenas (e.g., Eastern philosophy and mental health treatments among others). I have found throughout my own life that this message has been expressed in various situations. For instance, my grandmother, a woman I have always admired for having amazing resilience, who lived through the Great Depression, took care of her family at age 7 when her mother had a "nervous breakdown", lost 2 husbands and a daughter, is 92 years old today and has one of the most positive attitudes I have ever come across. When I asked her how she kept a smile on her face through it all, she told me a story of a life changing conversation she had with good old Dr. Benson (the family physician at the time). He sat her down and said, "Helen, sometimes you just have to let things go, let them roll right off your shoulders. You can't control everything in life.". This is a philosophy she has used to get through life obstacles.
In my own life, I have found it tremendously difficult to apply this, especially during challenging times. Even after countless sessions of therapy where we talked about letting things go and trusting in the process of life, after hearing my grandmother tell me the story of good old Dr. Benson, after reading about letting go in a zen-y yoga magazine article, I have still found it to be a struggle. On paper the phrase seems so simple and easy to understand, but the grasping of the concept and actual life application is a challenge for many. And I believe it is extremely important life skill to have an outlet, a way of letting go in the form of a sport, social activity, music, hobby and so on. Thus, the goal of the "Let go let" site will be to promote the idea and message of finding an alternative activity or interest to help shift one's focus and move more toward enjoying one's life to the fullest--because life is too short not to!
Gingerbread will be the one to bring our theme to the world, and here's why:This site will be meant to delight and inspire people to move, pursue interests and let go of whatever holds them back from really enjoying life. To give a little more back story on the idea, my husband, myself and my best friend all came up with this idea a few weeks ago. We thought the best way to capture our idea would be to use a gingerbread man/woman (unisex really) to be the spokes-cookie. We chose him because he is whimsical, makes you laugh and looks a little ridiculous. He also evokes childlike emotions which take you back to a carefree time in life, and that's the emotion were going for!
While other t-shirt sites certainly exist, even those expressing an ethos (Life is Good, for instance), my concept differs in a number of ways. I am honing in on the message of letting go and finding an outlet for indivuals to express their given beliefs. Every shirt that would be created is the product of the individual, completely customizable, not a one-size fits all approach to ideological t-shirt design. Customers will be invited to share their own story and create their own ginger-let-go-tee (subject to approval). There will also be a "Contact us" section encouraging consumers to write their story and request their t-shirt. Laslty, I will also be picking 3 main charaties to get behind and support with some of the t-shirt proceeds.