Notes to self.

It’s not often that I’m a member of the Cool-Kids-Club.  I’m usually the short, fat one just outside the circle, jumping a little bit “Hey, guys, what are you doing?”  But this time, I’m confident that I’ve been a member of the “Green” movement for most of my adult life.

Maybe it’s just because Earth Day is impending.  Maybe it’s the price of gas, food, utilities, etc., that makes us want to “tighten the belt” and saving the planet is a natural step from saving my budget.  I’ve never had an abundance of cash so the whole “use it up, make do or do without” Amish mentality works for me and my family.  We cloth diaper.  We recycle everything.  I’m learning to compost (and Ella learned that worms don’t have bones).  I cook from scratch (except for our RDA of Red Dye #40 which needs to be ingested through artifical processing).  We use the library.  I sew.  I refuse chemicals on the lawn.  Compact Florescents.  Short showers.  Locally grown food in season.  Locally processed meat.  Yadda, yadda.

My Time magazine was delivered with a “green” border and had a statement from the editor on the inside cover talking about the paper factories using sustainable forests and recycled materials.  The phrase “carbon footprint” is all over Yahoo travel when all I wanted to do was book a trip for Ella and I.  (We are going to San Francisco in June to visit Stephen’s brother.) 

What I don’t get is that we have been living in excess for more than 100 years.  For the most part.  When we have more than we need, we discard the notion that we will ever have to do without and are, therefore, wasteful.  I’m that way.  I get a little extra cash and I end up with crap I don’t need.  Like a Swatch.  Which is hella cool and I get comments on it every day but I didn’t “need” it, right?  But it’s essentially wasteful spending.  It’s plastic.  It’s unnecessarily expensive.  And I *had* to have it right that moment.  I would never have even window shopped if I had known that all I had was $30 for groceries until payday. 

All the cool kids have gone green.  Mamas pay $100 or more for one cloth diaper.  That a kid will poop in.  No shit (get it!  HaHa)  Matt Damon is the poster boy for clean drinking water.  Everyone is talking about saving the polar ice caps.  It’s vogue to care again.  But what about all of us who have been here all along?  Who saw it coming.  Who wore the two tone Converse All stars years before the preps did. (Whoops…different post subject…15 years later and I’m still stuck) Does this mean that when things swing the other way, as they always do, the H4 will be the vehicle to have with its 6 miles to the gallon? 

And I will cease to be cool.  Again.