For example, to reduce water consumption, I am following the "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down" philosophy. Yet, I screw up several times a day. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to remember NOT to flush? It is just automatic. Another example: I have sworn off plastic bags for groceries. I have two large cloth bags. Sometimes, I even put them in the car, but then, when I carry them back in the house, they never make it back to the car. Then, when I stop to pick up a few things on my way home from somewhere, I don't have them with me, and I resort to plastic. Then I get mad at myself.
I literally have to take on these habits one at a time. If it takes me several weeks to master a new habit, it is going to take 5 years to cut my emissions! I look around my home and I realize that there are lots of things I could do. I could make my own: bread, ketchup, mayonnaise, pickles, salsa, crackers, cookies, granola bars, yogourt, and french fries. I could grow a lot of food in my back yard. I could become vegetarian. I could ride my bike to work. Each one of these
items requires learning a new skill or making some kind of re-organization in my life. Riding my bike would involve fixing it first. Do I spend money to have it fixed, or do I learn how to fix it
myself? Becoming vegetarian would involve learning at least 5-10 new recipes that the family enjoys, which means trying out at least 10-20 new recipes. Even at one per week, it would still be 6 months before we could be primarily vegetarian.
It is all so HARD.
I hear all the time how "homeschooling must be so hard." Homeschooling is NOT HARD. Homeschooling is easy. It is easier than childbirth, easier than nursing, easier than life with a toddler, easier than life with an infant and a preschooler, and it's easier than sending the kids to school. Learning how to do everything you have ever done before to make it more earth-friendly is HARD. It involves cultural and personal reconditioning, and consciously thinking about every action you take all day long. It is HARD.
If this is hard for ME, a person with an education, and some money, and some free time, and a somewhat supportive husband, and a passionate desire to do BETTER, then how hard is it going to be for the average family who is simply trying to figure out how to handle the latest rent increase?
Is there hope for our planet? Can we do this?
9 comments:
See from my perspective homeschooling would be HARD...but then again so is making a major lifestyle change. I'm right there with you. To make you feel better I took my cloth bag to the store and promptly forgot to use it!! My son was asking the nine millionth question of the day and before I realized it my groceries were in a plastic bag. I almost handed it back but knew they would just wad it up and throw it away. I will put it in my cloth and take to the farmer's market tomorrow to put the meat in (since the vendor insisist I have it seperated)! It gets easier...it just takes time.
Remember this New Thought principle:
You get more of what you focus on.
As you focus on the difficulty of making the changes, and as you focus on the negative reasons for making the changes, you'll experience more and more difficulty and see more and more the problems instead of the solutions.
I really enjoy your writing - honest, straightforward and thought provoking. I'm struggling with some of the same challenges; I've forgotten my bags on several occasions, I've driven the kids to activities more often than I would have liked because we were running late (again) and I have yet to use my new clothesline (apparently head lice needs hot water wash AND hot heat dryer).
So, there have been a few setbacks but so many things working well too.
Maybe that's what would be helpful now. Take a moment to reflect on all of the positive things that you're doing and how long it took to have them become habits.
And I agree with Marianna - homeschooling, now THAT'S hard!!
Before you beat yourself up further, let me say that while you may not be doing all that you hope to be doing, your vision is spreading by the fact that you share: I saw cloth grocery bags at Superstore today and bought some. :) We usually use the crates, but now and then the crates don't hold enough and we need to buy some plastic bags. The cloth bags aren't actually cloth at all: they are recycled plastic!! :D
I'm finding it hard too but it feels great when I do remember my cloth bags :)
Just wanted to let you know that through your posts here you are helping the environment by influencing others. I was an occasional cloth bag user but have remembered our cloth bags more often over the last fortnight as a direct result of your recent posts. I think it will be a habit soon.
I hadn't though of looking for alternatives to the filmy plastic bags for fruit and vegetables till you mentioned them here. Since reading that, I've started using a couple of netting bags I had around the house, and I'm crocheting another! I'm also thinking that sewing drawstring bags (maybe out of a light sheet) would be a good sewing project for my children - nice and simple. Might even make nice gifts for environmentally-friendly relatives.
lisia - where could I find instructions to crochet a net bag? I've seen knotted instructions - macrame, basically - but not crochet.
I don't always bag my produce. If I'm buying only a few of several different items, I use only one bag and the cashier can take them out to weigh the different ones individually - it's something I did quite a few times, and I never minded doing it. I never understood the customers I got that would bag things like coconuts and mini-watermelons, or double or triple bag things that were in no danger of breaking through the plastic.
When using any alternative produce bag, you will be paying more because of the extra weight. That's why those bags are so filmy. They don't register on the scales at all.
Hi Kunoichi
I searched on the Internet but couldn't find a pattern for a crochet bag that seemed suitable for this purpose so I chose a stitch from my crochet book that looked like it would produce a fine lightweight net (the stitch is called "double treble") and I am simply crocheting a long rectangle - a single long strip - in this stitch. When I think the rectangle is long enough, I will cast off, fold it in half, sew up the sides and thread a light string around the opening as a drawstring.
Since starting the bag, I have borrowed a library book which has pictures and instructions for a wider variety of crochet stitches. "Double crochet with chain 1 spaces" and "chain 3 lace" look like they would produce a fine, lightweight net.
I am using a fine, very light cotton.
Like you, I avoid putting fruit and vegetables in separate bags whenever convenient such as when I'm only purchasing a few or when the items are large.
I have put a photo of my half-finished crochet bag on my Lil's View blog so you can see it.
Oh sure Daisy...throw great thought principles out there NOW why don't you. After I battled negative thoughts all year and promptly gave up on my ideals! ;)
Thanks, lisia.
I've recently crocheted a simple bag by making two squares of double chain stitches (a very simplified granny square would be one way to describe it), crocheting them together and then adding a handle. It's more like a purse and too heavy a material for something that will be weighed, but it is similar to what you're doing.
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