Monday, August 07, 2006
RECYCLING IS A GOOD THING.....
I used to wonder why my mother kept things. The older I grow, the more I think I understand. She grew up when nothing was wasted and they saved every little thing that could be used later…..or even if they ‘thought’ they could use it later.
I’m sure if I had an early married life like my mom and dad I would have had a far different attitude about a lot of things. It is very difficult for one generation to understand another, either forwards or back. You have to ‘be’ there to truly get the big picture.
Although I started out a lot different, we did know hard times here and there but never to the degree my parents did. I used to listen to their stories in awe because it was amazing to think they could come through times like that and not be bitter or self-serving.
As the years went by it became apparent to me that being wasteful in anything was wrong, whether you could afford to be wasteful or not. There was a commercial years ago where an Indian comes to a stream of water, picks up some trash from it and a tear rolls down his cheek. I think that did more for my understanding than words ever could. The look on his face made me realize how America wastes……. and we aren’t even concerned about it.
As I grew older, I began scraping butter wrappers before throwing them away, I found I was wasting a lot of water and curbed that habit, shut lights off when leaving rooms, turned the oven and burners off a few minutes early to use the heat already expended…….and a lot of other things which made good sense.
It seemed ridiculous to pay for wasting things. How many of us gals haul fresh produce home only to watch it deteriorate in the frig? My good intentions were ‘good,’ naturally, but I somehow never got to them before they were over the hill. After a few more years of wasting groceries on every level I got smart. Now that I “juice” daily for Rocky and me too, the fruit and veggies are not around long enough to grow old. Those vitamins are no longer going to the compost pile (another way to use waste) but are energizing our systems.
Don’t over-buy, use what you buy and save all you can. It’s a shame that we have become a “throw away” society and I’m doing all I can to shore up the areas where I have been guilty. I just hope mom is watching because I know it would make her happy………
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
I’m sure if I had an early married life like my mom and dad I would have had a far different attitude about a lot of things. It is very difficult for one generation to understand another, either forwards or back. You have to ‘be’ there to truly get the big picture.
Although I started out a lot different, we did know hard times here and there but never to the degree my parents did. I used to listen to their stories in awe because it was amazing to think they could come through times like that and not be bitter or self-serving.
As the years went by it became apparent to me that being wasteful in anything was wrong, whether you could afford to be wasteful or not. There was a commercial years ago where an Indian comes to a stream of water, picks up some trash from it and a tear rolls down his cheek. I think that did more for my understanding than words ever could. The look on his face made me realize how America wastes……. and we aren’t even concerned about it.
As I grew older, I began scraping butter wrappers before throwing them away, I found I was wasting a lot of water and curbed that habit, shut lights off when leaving rooms, turned the oven and burners off a few minutes early to use the heat already expended…….and a lot of other things which made good sense.
It seemed ridiculous to pay for wasting things. How many of us gals haul fresh produce home only to watch it deteriorate in the frig? My good intentions were ‘good,’ naturally, but I somehow never got to them before they were over the hill. After a few more years of wasting groceries on every level I got smart. Now that I “juice” daily for Rocky and me too, the fruit and veggies are not around long enough to grow old. Those vitamins are no longer going to the compost pile (another way to use waste) but are energizing our systems.
Don’t over-buy, use what you buy and save all you can. It’s a shame that we have become a “throw away” society and I’m doing all I can to shore up the areas where I have been guilty. I just hope mom is watching because I know it would make her happy………
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
