Thursday, May 24, 2007

When was the last time a Staples employee took a vow of silence?

stan posted this at 10:05 PM, and 6 of you responded

I think that the next time I buy replacement carthages...er, I mean cartridges for our printer, I'm gonna buy them from monks. Seriously. Real monks from Our Lady of Spring Bank Cistercian Abbey in Sparta, Wisconsin, in between quiet times of reflection and prayer, also happen to sell ink and toner cartridges, ribbons, data storage and even coffee.

Check it out here: LaserMonks

Your thoughts?

6 Talked Back:

At May 28, 2007 at 4:03:00 PM CDT, Blogger Jim said...

I used the dumba$$ kid at Walgreens, bad mistake

 

At May 30, 2007 at 12:38:00 AM CDT, Blogger Samuel John Klein said...

It's true...it does sound rather strange until you think about it a bit.

Monastic orders have a long history of raising money by producing mercantile goods. If you've ever heard of that fine liqueur, Benedictine...it was named for the Benedictine monks who produce it. There's also Chartreuse, another herbal liqueur, which was produced by Carthusian monks (who also gave us this beautiful, smart breed of grey kitty also called Chartreuse (I had a mutt kitty that was partially that breed. Amazing cat))

Locally here in Oregon we have those monks out of Lafayette, which produce wine and baked goods.

I'm betting you've known some of this, but what caused me to prattle on so is that it reminded me of the personal history of an aquaintance I quite respect. He was a monk at one time, years ago; styled himself Brother Peter, of what order I know not. But after the death of his wife he spent a few years as a monk at a very small (say, less than ten members) monastery somewhere in the South, Georgia I think it was. They had a couple of enterprise-level computer systems (this was back in the late '70s, I think), and they made thier living selling data processing services.

I always thought that was interesting, and indicated to me that there's more than one way to server for the greater good.

Though I must say, providing access to computer accessories is quite an inspiration. And I don't think I need to indicate how cool a name like "LaserMonks" is.

 

At May 30, 2007 at 7:27:00 AM CDT, Blogger stan said...

I did know about Benedictine, and I've tried it before—my friends over at Apotheke serve it.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't there an abbey somewhere north of Mt. Angel? I wonder if they have any monk products. I mean, I wonder if the monks there produce anything. ("Monk products" sounds like something either made for monks...or from monks. Eww.)

 

At May 30, 2007 at 10:59:00 PM CDT, Blogger Jana Swartwood said...

Ok, that is just freakin' awesome! Yay for the monks!

 

At June 7, 2007 at 9:07:00 AM CDT, Blogger Samuel John Klein said...

Stan:

To my knowledge they produce no consumer goods at Mount Angel, though they do have an annual Bach Festival, and their library (which I understand is open to the public) has few peers.

They do have a Seminary there, so I guess you'd say they thier monk products are..well, monks. Or priests maybe. But those are hard to come by on the open market, so they say.

 

At June 8, 2007 at 11:49:00 AM CDT, Blogger Katie said...

This just makes me happy.

 

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