A Time For Change

There are far too many conflicting facts regarding what is bad for you, what is good for you, and the worst of it is that it seems to change day by day. For the most part, the conclusion I have come to is that if it is good for the Earth, it is probably good for you too. I am not in the least prepared to go all "No Impact Man" ( Though his year-long experiment was and is hella cool.), and my steps to respect and love my World are going to be modest, but the idea is to build better, and healthier ways of living - for me and Mother Earth -, and to educate myself along the way.

I hate the condition we have gotten our environment into. What the hell have we all been thinking? I mean, I know I had parents who punished me for breaking my toys, for wasting food by not cleaning my plate ( damn green beans...) and I too tell my kids not to be wasteful by breaking their things, or getting too much to eat, etc. So, the irony to me is that we tell them that and then we break the world we live in and why? To throw away swiffer pads, razors, pens, cups, plates, bottles, clothes, paper? To eat beef, knowing full well what that means for pollution? It goes on and on. Selective ignorance and I am so sick of myself.

My new habits to begin with today are these...

1. No more disposable cleaning wipes.

2. Lay off the beef and pork consumption.

3. Stop buying 20 0z. sodas. ( I am bad about this at work. I get one or two every day that I go in. At best I spend $6.75 a week.)

4. Stop buying bottles of water. While I can get a huge bottle of Dasani for $1.10, it still comes in one of those plastic bottles that I am trying to rid my life of, and honestly I really do like my tap water, so why am I paying for water at work?

5. Stop the flow of plastic bags into my home. My family and I have a whole plethora of cloth shopping bags that we don't use nearly often enough. This is a big deal for me, because I can't handle the thought of hurting animals with a bag just because they are the quick and convenient way to go.

I know that I am spoiled by convenience. I own that completely. I was raised in a generation where faster was better and using something more than once was unthinkable. It all comes at a heavy price both personally, and to the world at large. I have to do something... I feel desperate to do something; to know that I am doing something for the only greater good that I know really and truly exists. I almost invariably believe that the "greater good" is usually a line passed out to make people follow a cause that hurts others, but not this time. This won't hurt anyone. Just the opposite. I'm ready for some change.