Living Green is Hard, Hard Work

Question: Trula, what if you want to live green but aren't able to do all the hard work involved? Or what if you just don't want to? I lived on a farm growing up and much of what you describe makes me think of the barrenness of my childhood. We didn't have solar panels and compost toilets or all the other expensive things that only rich people can afford to make living green easy. We had an outhouse, I had to toil on the farm, and it was hard, boring work to make clothes, can food, and look after livestock.

What you describe as hard, boring work is a source of deep joy for me. It is a form of meditation, to sew something by hand or work in my garden or chop wood or make bread/cookies/whatever by hand. It just feels good for me to work with my hands and provide for my family in this way. And be environmentally active in my life, to feel I am a part of the solution rather than the passive participant I was years ago. Just by the way I choose to live I am doing activist work. I do realize it is not perfect work and I can always do better.

The folks you mention, the rich ones who are able to live off the grid or close to it, in my experience their hearts are in the right place but they usually have crazy money and so start off with the compost toilet and solar panels and what not. They have someone else dig their wells and build their straw bale house or earth ship house or whatever. They tend to jump into farming without having even successfully even gardened before. I am not saying being rich is their flaw, but the money tends to stop them from learning how to work with their hands and to be active in this lifestyle. When you can just buy new parts for your house, you're probably not going to spend days combing the dump for usable, non-toxic supplies to build your home. When you have the money to pay someone else to install your plumbing, you're probably not going to install your own plumbing and learn how to maintain it. Stuff like that.

That said, I will tell you what I tell everyone else: Do what you can. It's not an all or nothing deal here. You don't have to grow your own vegetables, but maybe you can buy vegetables at your local farmer's market. You don't have to compost your kitchen waste, but maybe you can reduce your garbage by taking your old newspaper and magazines to recycle. You don't have to make your own clothes, but maybe you can buy used clothes from a thrift store. You see? Start somewhere and do what you can.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!

Do What You Can

Certainly, someone can feel I am implying that by taking the steps I described that they will be free from complicity in what is happening with the environment. I believe that if someone feels this way they will soon drop this way of thinking because once they are on the environmental path, they will begin to understand that is just the tip of the iceberg. I have a sister who refused to recycle at all because she felt like she couldn't do more than that or keep up with it. I suggested to her to try just recycling her aluminum products. She just drinks a pop a day at her job and the company provides a recycle bin. After a few months of doing just this she felt confident enough to start recycling plastic bottles at home. Now after a few months she's starting on recycling her magazines and has started reducing her electrical use. She is on the path, you see?

I understand most people in the world have different life pressures that affect how much they are able to do. I think that using their different life pressures as an excuse to choose to do less than I am able, would be a cop-out for me. If I choose to do less when I can do more, I am just making their life pressures worse. I feel that by doing more I am not only helping myself but helping everybody else too.

Subscribe to Family Footprint by Email

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!

Denial of Personal Responsibility

The saddest thing of all to me about this is that the denial of personal ownership or responsibility toward the environment I see and hear from others is usually not one of mean-spirited selfishness or an intentional callous disregard for what is happening...it can seem petty and grasping, but that's because so many people feel they can't afford to make any changes in their life that would help this problem.

For example, The big business that dumps their run-off might say they can't afford to use non-toxic industrial cleaner, while individuals might say they can't afford to buy non-toxic dish detergent.

Subscribe to Family Footprint by Email