NOLA Notes

See my new little piece of flare?  Look to the right, down, more, more. There! My counter showing how many days BP has been spewing oil into the Gulf.  We are on Day 43.  Gah.

I’d like to say I’m settling in with it, like the proverbial “pebble in the shoe.”  But that is not the case.  No, instead of getting used to the spill in small measures, I think about quitting my day job to volunteer to help out.  But that isn’t a realistic option.  But my spare time is hitched to Sun, so volunteering when I am not working is also unrealistic.  Sure, I can donate money.  But that hardly seems significant.

For the past 43 days, I’ve been reminded of the ideals I had in college.  Saving the world, one dolphin at a time.  Not eating tuna to protest the bad nets.  Giving up eating meat because of the inhumane conditions of the butcheries.  All those things of which I was once so serious and dedicated.  Sad that we graduate from college and “grow up” and out of these beliefs, habits.

My husband and I do more to reduce our carbon footprint than many.  We recycle (we even bring things home from work to toss in the bins); we compost with worms; we use many second-hand clothes for Sun and then send them along to be used by another friend’s young daughter (kids grow way too fast to even give many items much wear); we filter tap water instead of buying bottled water.  On the other hand, we have two cars, few high efficiency appliances, waste too much water, and otherwise overlook much of the rest of the things we can do to better the world.  Using reusable groceries bags is NOT going to do the trick.

So I’ve made some decisions.  For one, I am rejoining Greenpeace.  They are the closest thing the environment has to a lobbyist.  More importantly, I am returning from whence I came to a life of conscious living– of actively doing more everyday to live a cleaner, greener, more yogic life, to reduce our dependence on oil.  There isn’t a checklist of things I’ll be doing.  Instead, it’s a mindset.  For example, there will be FAR LESS plastic brought into this house, that I can guarantee.  And that means mainly less toys for Sun.  Because the best I can do is set her on a green path NOW so that her habits don’t need to be changed down the line.

We live in a small house.  I was alone in it today.  ALL ALONE.  For the entire day.  And I was a Tasmanian devil! I did some serious Spring cleaning–of Sun’s toys (to ready some space for new things since her birthday is next week) and of my things.  We own too much “stuff.”  I spent time in a bigger house this weekend and thought, “If we lived here, we’d be much more comfortable and have more space for entertaining.”  Then we drove home and I looked at my house from the street.  It’s only small by today’s standards.  Forty years ago, this house would have easily housed a family of six.  Seriously.  I’ve got a friend that lived across the street when he was a boy–he had six siblings.  He told me that in just MY SMALL block alone, over 75 children lived. My house isn’t too small. My STUFF is too much.

So we are downsizing.  All three of us.  In addition to reducing what we have, we are reducing what we will be bringing into the house.

In addition to owning less stuff, especially petroleum related products, we are also making the decision to buy locally whenever possible.  Goodbye mall, Toys R Us, Target.  Hello Farmer’s markets, and Mom and Pop shops.  Yes, it may cost more today.  But if it uses less oil and gas to get the product to me, then the payoff is down the line.  Our next car purchase (in another 5 years) will be a hybrid or electric car.  Ditto for upgrades in future appliances.  We’ll look into solar panels on our roof.  We can’t afford many of these things now, but we can gradually start to make the change.

There will be many other adjustments as we go down this path.  Some minor, some major.  It takes trying times to test one’s mettle, and that time is now.

This oilspill is nothing short of disastrous on so many levels.  I won’t have it destroy my ideals too.