Two, Two Wastes in One!

Oh good. SHEW. I was worried we didn't have enough microwaveable lunch products. I thought maybe we were running out. Not to worry! Barilla has come out with THEIR own version of the healthy Microwaveable Meal. Just 1 minute to prepare! 100% natural ingredients and no preservatives.

(By the by, arsenic is 100% natural. So is mercury. Just sayin'.)

Women's Health even named the Whole Grain Fusilli with Vegetable Marinara on of the "Best Packaged Foods for Women"! Yay.

Thanks to the blog I grabbed this image from. Please stop.

Naturally, because I had to share, I checked them out all over the place. They are even worse than originally believed. See, not only do you have the non-recyclable #5 bowl for the pasta, you get a SECOND smaller bowl for the sauce!

One bowl thrown into the Gyre is not enough for some people. Two is ever so much better.

We should eat these every day. They're so healthy and so... so... what's the word?

Oh yeah. Convenient.

Does it ever feel like we're taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back, or is that just me?

We can't take away all the plastic we've added to our environment. What's here is never going away. All we can do is NOT add any more! But factories in China have to keep making, we have to keep buying, and the oceans get to keep filling. Please stop. What sucks is, even if we stopped THIS SECOND, right now, while you are reading, I fear it's a long way back from the edge. Or we went over the edge. I don't know. All I know is we HAVE to STOP.

What is it going to take?

Harmless is Apparently Subjective

Only recently did I jump on the coconut water train with a vengeance. I mean, YUM. I love that stuff. I really just want to buy coconuts and drill right on into them to avoid the middleman.

Like these guys: Harmless Harvest. From all I can see, they are a great company, try to do everything sustainably, have a great attitude and a good business, and their water is supposedly the best-tasting, hands down. It's not heated, it's pressure processed for a good shelf life, totally organic, raw.

But, I'm sorry, guys. You can't call yourself harmless if you are using plastic bottles. Just can't be. Glass is harmless. Plastic is almost never harmless in the big picture. I understand their process requires the use of plastic bottles, with the pressure and all. But, no. Plastic in the environment, plastic bottle, is not harmless. I have NO shades of grey on that one. They look like nice guys. They seem to want to do their best. But I will avoid any product that is in plastic. I e-mailed their company to try to get some information from them. They were not terribly responsive. I gave up. I am sure this is delicious. But I would rather just flat-out buy the darn coconut than add more plastic to the planet.

Just don't call yourself "harmless" unless you are, completely and totally. No excuses. Wonderful Harvest? Tasty Harvest? There are lots of Adjectives. Harmless, however, is not the one you should be using. It's catchy, sure, but it's false.

I'll maintain this position until I hear otherwise from Justin and Douglas. Sorry, guys. None shall pass.

Hmm... there's some Mamma Chia on the shelf right nest to it... I'll buy that.

It's in glass. And I love me my chia seeds.

Magic Tap: Plastic AND Batteries For What?

Here's another one of those wonderful solutions to a problem I did not know we had.

Is it convenient? Sure! Is it useful? Yes. Do people with small children or older adults who have problems lifting need it? Need? No. Helpful? Sure. I lean more toward the older adults, because people with small children don't need yet one more thing to duck out of when being around their kids. (Yeah, I said it. bring it. I'm a witch, not a fluffy bunny-land airy fairy.) It's the Magic Tap Automatic Drink Dispenser. Battery operated.

One of their selling points is that kids can help themselves now.When you have kids, you accept certain responsibilities. One of those is pouring the heavy stuff or cleaning up a spill when you let them pour the heavy stuff. Kids don't really need to be helping themselves to things all the time and you don't have to give them a sense of independence by letting them get their own damn drinks. They need supervision at certain ages. And if they are too small to handle a gallon container of something, then they are still at the age of supervision! Why do I care? Because this is more plastic crap that breaks and gets tossed when it doesn't work right and uses batteries which also just get tossed when they are spent... and really it's for nothing. This is not a problem. If it is, maybe you have to think about some things long and hard. This is simply a company trying to make money. They don't care about your home life. They just are trying to make a buck. Yay, America. Of course they are entitled, but it doesn't mean we have to fall for it.

Yes, I can see where it would be handy for people who cannot lift, or have arthritis, but look at this thing. It IS plastic crap. It can break anywhere so easily, or it'll be a pain to clean out when necessary so into the drawer it goes, then into garbage... and of course they are SO nice and cheap that if it breaks, just buy another, no problem! It's just part of a bigger picture. Solutions to problems we don't really have, and things we have dealt with more or less in an OK manner for years.

If the bottles are too big for little kids, handle it for them. If you don't have time, don't have kids. (Again... "witch." Sorry. It's long been my philosophy that if one doesn't have the time needed for kids or finds life too inconvenient with kids... don't have kids.) If the bottles are too heavy for some people, buy smaller amounts, or have someone (if you can) split them into smaller containers that are easier to manage. (Yes, I have more sympathy there, arthritis runs in my family and I realize certain things become difficult.) But please let's stop with the As Seen on TV crap that addresses made-up issues. We aren't helpless. Our predecessors got along without these stupid things, and just because we think of them doesn't make it "Progress." One of their claims: "If you're tired of lifting large containers, do yourself a favor and buy these." Notice a marked increase in obesity out there in the world? How about we DO lift heavy stuff for a change?

Think.

And actually, if your kid is standing there with the fridge door hanging open in the hot Summer while waiting to fill up a glass of plastic-encased high-fructose corn syrupy crap, you got more than just the one problem. Just sayin'.

Symptom of a bigger thing. Yeah, I picked on the Magic Tap, but really it's all these damn things out there. These stupid products sell millions and then end up where? You guessed it. Ever Ever Land. Part of which is right smack in the middle of all of our oceans.

Bring Back the Zippo

There are so many disposable things in our lives that we don't need to be disposable, it's mind-boggling. For example, take the easily-ignored lighter. There are a lot of smokers out there. I used to be one of them. How many times does it happen that they have lost the lighter? Constantly. How many lighters do we go through in the course of, say, a year? 3? 6? More? We have them left over from my smoker days and from when we have found them in the laundry room, etc. We use them to light candles and incense. They get lost or get used up, and thrown away they go. As I've said before, though, away isn't really away.

Cigarette lighters collected by volunteers;
 picture by D. Tsukayama,  Midway Atoll

Remember Zippos? Those awesome metal refillable things that just plain looked cool back in the day? Why did we abandon those in favor of plastic? Plastic lighters can be dangerous. I had one explode in my car once, as it sat too close too being in the sun as my car was parked at work. Plastic shards everywhere, lighter fluid smells. They go through the laundry. They end up in the ocean. They leak their toxic fluid into the ocean. They never go away. And for what? Convenience? Because we cannot be bothered to refill Zippos?

Here's what REALLY funny: It's very hard to buy the necessary lighter fluid. This I know because I was fond of using refillable lighters. They make it very hard to purchase that stuff. Because it's dangerous. I find that vaguely ironic, because I find the plastic lighters far more dangerous in the long run. Is that why people don't buy Zippos? Because it's too darn inconvenient to buy the fluid? That has to be the reason, because overall there really can be no other excuse. They have a lifetime warranty so it's not like it breaks and you are SOL. Pure, sheer convenience, I guess.

Look, almost all of us have need for lighters at one point or another. Lighting candles in the dark when the power goes out, camping, fireplace, pilot lights that went out... why not have something of quality that will last, rather than cheap dangerous plastic that ends up in the Midway Atoll of all places, in the stomachs of baby albatross??? What a great cool neat thoughtful green gift: a Zippo. I went to their site after thinking about this, and WOW! I have to say, I was even more impressed. What a great story they have, and what cool products. I don't get on people for smoking. It is what it is. I DO get on them for littering or for the plastic lighters. Matches are preferable, for that matter. But, yeah, let's please do away with plastic disposable lighters. There is nothing redeeming about them. We do not need them. The planet doesn't need them. They are bad-bad-bad. 

I will buy no more. When I find need for a lighter, I will purchase a Zippo and keep it forever. Better yet, I will find an older one and keep it forever. Those things rock my world.

I didn't intend this to be a commercial for Zippo, but it sure turned into one. HAH! This IS an indictment against plastic lighters. Please: buy no more. And think about gifting something to that candle enthusiast you know... a personalized pretty lighter is really a very thoughtful gift! Designed. Engraved. Whatever! They will think of  you every time they use it, too! Get one for the smoker in your life. Even if you do not approve of their choice to smoke, at least you can help them be a little better about it! Right? 

And when you go to Zippo's site, please tell them I sent you. Not that I'll get anything, just... well, they should know. Hah!

Our Plastic Bag Addiction

The more I know, the less I want to know.

I toured the Algalita Marine Research Institute in Redondo Beach (http://www.algalita.org/index.php). These great people are responsible for research in the 5 Gyres, especially the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as well as the tsunami debris field. I have met, and know and respect these people. They are doing amazing work. They inspire me.

Bezoar from camel's stomach

During the tour, the instructors brought out something surprising. It didn't have anything to do with the oceans. It had to do with the Arabian desert, of all places. Plastic bag pollution there? Yes.

I Googled, and I've seen some pictures of the desert just strewn with plastic bags. I don't recommend it; it's pretty depressing. And before you think that you have nothing to do with that... yes, our recycling cast-offs (because, remember, we don't actually recycle things here, we just bundle them and ship them off to other countries to be processed) end up over there, and because even those places don't want to recycle plastic bags, they just get tossed away. They blow off into the environment. No one wants to pick them up. Where else to put them, anyway? Then, it turns out, camels will go along and just eat whatever they come across in a goat-like manner. They are not discerning, They do not know what will hurt them. They just graze. So they end up munching a bunch of plastic bags. All this crap and debris just kind of sticks around in their stomach, becoming a huge mass called a bezoar, which I have pictured here. This, of course, eventually kills them. Slowly and painfully. This thing pictured weighs around 30 pounds. Think about THAT extra weight in YOUR stomach. You weigh more but you starve to death anyway, because you can't take in nutrients around this thing.

Our plastic habit has much further-reaching impact than we think. How insane is it to grab something that you use for mere moments, then discard, and then that thing goes on to pollute the place we live for years and years and years? How does that make any sense to anyone? Because it's convenient? Surely we are better than that. Surely. Please let us be better than that.

We need to realize that other creatures on this planet are suffering because of our carelessness, negligence, and desire for convenience. Because we can't be bothered to remember our reusable bags. Because we just have to have bottled water. Because... just because. There are no real reasons to do this to the planet and to the animals that live on it and through no fault of their own are harmed by OUR actions. Ours. Ours and nobody else's. And there is no excuse for this. There really isn't. We don't have to be a disposable society. We don't. We need to think, we need to care. We need to be the stewards of this Earth that we are supposed to be. That the other creatures here need us to be, because they cannot defend themselves against our apathy.

We have to do better. We just do.

I've Seen Enough. Just Shoot Me Now.

Someone somewhere was talking about hard boiled eggs. My former co-worker when I had a job would bring in hard boiled eggs. Great snack, good basis for a lunch. Got a bunch of eggs and the are about to go over to the dark side? Hard-boil them and you got lots more use out of them. Egg salad? Yum. Deviled eggs? One of my favorites. Super yum. Husband hates them; I rarely have them. Here's a funny thing about me: I worked in some very fine restaurants as a sous chef, and I was pretty damn good. I made a chicken piccata, make you weep. Scampi? Mmmm. I could do it all. But I have never mastered the perfect hard boiled eggs. They are inevitable underdone or done to the point of green. You know what I mean, when they yolk is just plain angry. Or they will not peel properly. But, yeah, I, a fairly accomplished professional chef at one time, cannot boil an egg to save my life.

And yet, and still, I would never. Ever. EVER. Never never never in my entire life, even DREAM of buying... wait for it... pre-shelled, packaged hard-boiled eggs.

I am finding it hard to believe that these exist. Then, I have to remember that they only exist because people ACTUALLY BUY THEM.

Somewhere, there was a demand for this product. Yeah. They even have a Trader Joe's brand. (See, I knew there were multiple reasons I stay out of that place...) "They're great when you're in a hurry!" "My husband loves them for his lunch!" "They're convenient!" (of course) "We save energy by not boiling them ourselves a few time a week, and by buying these instead."

No. No, no, no. No. Eggs come in a really great container (so long as you stick with the paper one, not the Styrofoam kind), and seriously, you can boil them at once one day and have them for the rest of the week. It's not difficult. I can come up with not one excuse to introduce this plastic packaging into to environment. Not one. If you can, please let me know. Because I sure cannot.

"I have a hard time peeling them!" No. "I don't have time." Nope. "I eat them more often since they come so easy like this!" No no no. If you have to resort to this, just skip it altogether. Really. You obviously do not need it that badly.

If you ever see me buying these, you have every permission to beat me silly. I'm not too worried. I'd have to have had a lobotomy to have these in my cart. These make about as much sense as buying packaged pre-peeled bananas. There is no reason to send this packaging into the ocean. None. I can't stress it enough. If I ever see someone buying these... let's just say, maybe it's better that I limit my exposure to public places. I'm OK with that.

The fact that these have apparently been around for a few years just goes to show how little I look for this stuff. It does not even occur to me that this is a fillable niche.

What about you?

How Many Little Plastic Drinks?

How many little tiny plastic bottles does Society want us to use a day??

Let's see... we wake up in the morning and drink Yakult to balance our digestive systems for the day - because, you know, we eat crap - so that's one little tiny plastic bottle. Multiplied by the millions that our sold daily. Daily.

Through the morning and during lunch, we have the little stuff we add to water or soda bottles or sports drinks or vitamin waters or other Styrofoam cups or single-use cups. Those aren't little bottles but they do add up to the trash.

But then in the afternoon, we have those cute little bottles of 5-Hour Energy Drink. We should drink those every day at 3pm or so... every day... millions of us. Because instead of the natural way our bodies are supposed to work with a siesta like the entire rest of the world does, we have to keep work-work-working so we can buy-buy-buy more plastic things. Go home too tired to cook so get stuff in take-out packaging and serve on paper plates and plastic forks because it's to hard to wash dishes.

All these products are not only packaged so poorly that we should run screaming, but they are completely unnecessary. We don't need to chug probiotics daily if we would just eat better. We can bring a coffee mug to work to use at the desk or the travel mug to transport coffee. As for the "needed" energy boost in the mid-afternoon? I guess it's too much to hope we can change Society to realize that a nap would raise productivity to amazing heights...

Yeah, that'd make too much sense. Makes much more sense to pollute the ends of the Earth til we kill everyone and everything. Including ourselves.

Instant Kids

I worry. I worry about kids. I don't have any kids, which is good, because I really worry about kids. And if I had kids... well, I wouldn't worry so much about my kids, because it would be likely my kids would not be Instant Kids. Well, they would try, but I would not let them.

We are creating a whole generation of Instant Kids. Kids who think that everything is right there and right at their fingertips and RIGHT NOW, and worst of all, free. Nothing has value when everything is instant and free. The Internet that I too love and use so much is of course responsible for a lot of this. Need some information, a picture, an idea? Look it up. Use it. I'm not saying it's a bad thing... who doesn't love being able to get instant directions instead of getting lost, or looking at a MAP fer' cryin' out loud? Information is a good thing. It's when those expectations branch out into everything else that it gets... undesirable.

How does Mother Nature have a hope against all this instant gratification? TV on demand and available NOW, when I want it. I can't wait, I need it now now now. Microwaves for food with crap in it that our bodies cannot recognize, I don't care I'm hungry I want it now now now. Cook? Bake?? Surely, you jest. Fast food restaurants open all the time. Food in fridge gone bad? So what, I can go to the store now now now and thrown this out and get new. Oh and then I see a fast food joint so I eat there now now now and bring the stuff I bought home and it goes bad too because it wasn't instant enough. Instant oatmeal, instant lunch, instant rice, instant coffee, now now now... Plan ahead? I don't have time! I want it now!

Hey I missed that, can you go back? Sure! no need to pay attention the first time, our DVRs catch it all. Same with music, DVDs, anything. Do I use these things? Of course. But then I remember the Before-time, when, if you missed it, you were SOL. So we paid attention, and we valued experiences, things. We are not raising kids to value anything. Cell phones? I need to call someone now now now. Text. Now. Don't have to wait til you get home to make a call. Get a glass of water. Watch something. You can do that, all of that, now now now.

I'm a part of this society. I have a microwave, of course I do. I have a cell phone, of course I do. I use the internet. Duh, obviously. I am instant, too. But not always. And I lament that these kids will be all Instant. That they will never know how to grown something. Or cook something. Or have to wait for something, so that when something comes along that is worth waiting for, they will not wait, and they will miss out.

We HAVE to teach these kids to wait. To value. To appreciate. I fear, if we do not, we will be lost. THEY will be lost. They will be swallowed in a sea of plastic and they will never have what they should havem what I have...

Appreciation for this world in which I live...

Less Plastic is Not Better Plastic

"But it's BPA-free!"

"But it uses LESS plastic than the other bottles!"

It's still plastic, people. I could stop there, but you know me, I must continue.

Plastic is plastic. It's not going away. Even though there is less of it, it's still IT. It's still gonna float around in the ocean. It still sits in the landfills. It still breaks and then becomes useless 'cuz ya can't fix plastic and you still gotta throw it away. How about NO plastic? Can we try that for at least a little bit? Maybe just in spurts at first? Maybe?

It can be done. Sure it's not as cheap or convenient, but what is at stake here? I am quite sure I don't have a normal household. I've been to other homes and - maybe I'm overly sensitive to this kind of thing, but - I am ALARMED at the number of plastic bottles of CRAP found there! DO we even think about it?? Or do we just go about our days with nary a thought?

What can we do? What do we say? Living by example clearly doesn't work well. Do we say something? Do we point it out? Do we just continue to write and hope some of it bleeds through?

I was given a bottle of "special" water. I was in a situation to be polite, and the water was very good, and the bottle was BPA-free and made largely from RPET (recycled plastic)... but it's still a plastic bottle and it still isn't going anywhere. Just stop the madness. We need to cut way back and just get it over with. I've said it before, I'll say it again, the only way to get rid of the 5 Gyres is to stop adding to them. People are taking stuff from the Gyres and making other stuff from it, and that is a good thing, but on our end, can't we just... stop?

Stop. And now I will.

Garbage In Garage Out Part 2

A lot of people seem to have a deep concern for the safety of their garbage. Either that or they are too nancy to deal with a little mess. When grousing against plastic bags, the inevitable question comes up... what about my garbage can?

Yes. What about it?

Well, I need a bag in there to line it.

Why?

Well... it's...

Gross?? It's garbage. Of course it's gross.

Well don't you...

Nope. I know I can rinse the wastebasket out with very little water if I need to. And ya know what else? I bet you don't have a shortage of bags from other places... chip bags, bags from frozen foods... if you have to be so dainty about what you are throwing away, why not save those for the messy times? Are we SO worried about our garbage that we have to make sure it is tied up and saved for all posterity in plastic in the landfills? Not everything you throw away is gross and messy, so why not assign those to smaller bags? Or if you MUST line your can, why not just dump the garbage out of that into the bigger can, if it's not so terrible?

Ohhh... wait, yeah that's right, I just realized. That might be inconvenient. Because, see, then you would have to bring the can out then bring it back IN to the house. You couldn't just run it out on your way to somewhere. It might take foresight, and planning, and some thinking. That just won't do. What was I thinking.

The water used to rinse out your can a little every so often (I hear the argument already) is nothing compared to the water used to make/transport the bags. So you are reusing ones from the store. How about not ever getting them from the store? The little bit of water used to rinse the can (reasonably, mind you, and I know, that too is a stretch) is nothing compared to disgusting amount of plastic floating in the ocean. And sh*t's not breakin' down in landfills, because we have to protect our garbage at all costs by confining it to plastic bags. Look, the garbage pick-up NEVER touch the stuff anymore; y'ain't protectin' THEM from anything. And the truck don't care neither.

And the title here and in the other? My dad used to write GIGO on the calendar every Thursday. We asked him why. It was to remind him to take the garbage that was in the garage in cans down to the end of the driveway. Garbage in garage out. That was before wheels on cans, when, bless his heart, he had to lug the METAL cans down one at a time. Talk about inconvenient. I feel like maybe we made less garbage in those days.

We were thinner, that's for sure.

My Under-$3 No-Plastic-Container Hummus!

I LOVE hummus. No, you don't understand. I LOVE hummus. I call it "yummus", I love it so much. I could probably eat an entire container, if I did not practice restraint. But darned if I didn't get The Guilts by getting it in those little plastic tubs. Major guilts. That, and it can be pricey, depending on where you buy it. But mostly, it's those tubs. Even re-using them a few times doesn't really assuage the guilt for me. I'm not a good assuager. (Google Chrome tells me that's not a word. I care not. Take that, Google Chrome.)

I set out to make my own hummus. Can't be that hard. Not that many ingredients, really. Garbanzo beans, garlic, tahini, lemon... OK. Well... where they heck do you find tahini? Not so easy to find. And when I did find it... yup, you guessed it, it was in a little plastic tub. Well THAT kind of defeats the purpose. Bummer. No hummus. Nummus.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I found a GLASS JAR of ORGANIC tahini at my local 99 Cents Only Store!!! OK! This is awesome! So, I have my 7oz jar of super-wonderful organic tahini in glass (regularly $7 in any other store) for 99 cents. (Actually, 99.99 cents, if you want to be exact.) I can get, like, four batches of yummus out of one jar. No, five. I got my organic garbanzo beans (yes, they are labeled organic as well), also from the 99 Cents Only store. (I know, BPA-lined can, I have to choose my battles sometimes. I'll get the can this time.) We aren't even at $1.20 yet. I have my lemon which came three in a bag from yes the same place, and my crushed garlic from Gilroy, CA, garlic capital of the world, also in a glass jar, also for 99 cents! We still haven't even hit two bucks, folks. The pricey ingredient is the olive oil, which I get on sale at Henry's Marketplace, and only use a little of in this recipe. A spin around in my Magic Bullet, and voila. Not even 10 minutes, not even $3, and I can eat the whole darn container if I wish. (I don't. It's actually kind of a lot.) Oh... sea salt and parsley don't really add to the cost much, but got those at, yes, 99COS.)

And I shall enjoy it with either baby carrots (yes, same place) or my Thin Wheat crackers. Guess where I get those. They taste better than Wheat Thins and are healthy, no trans fats, baked, etc.  I have saved LOTS of money and I have sacrificed nothing except a few plastic containers. And I hardly call that a sacrifice. I'm getting better at making it; it can be tricky and it almost never comes out the same, but it's tasty and I love it. I did once put a lethal dose of garlic in it, but I'm Italian and garlic doesn't stick on me for long. My body is used to it. :)

I feel better about this. I would rather bring this to a get-together or picnic over store-bought stuff any day. I'll someday branch out a bit and experiment with some nice oils and flavors, but for now, I'm good with it. I cross fingers that my favorite store continues to score these deals. Could be I was lucky, and this was a one-time thing, but I'll keep looking. I wish tahini kept longer. But it's OK. Someday, I will get fancy and stop using the canned beans, and use dried instead from the bulk food section at Henry's. I'll make it with zucchini instead of beans. I'll add flair. For now, I'm just going to enjoy feeling good about my hummus and enjoy eating it. What was once something I might have treated myself to on very rare occasion, I now have to my heart's content. And it's healthy. And I am not contributing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And it does not take long at all.

Feeling good, yes I am. No magazines for me today! Just good  food. I do, however, solemnly promise to not breathe on you after yummus-time.

You Got Your Garbage in My Almond Butter!

Just one more example of sliding backwards. One step forward, two steps back. I would be wholeheartedly for this product. In fact, I'm sure it's an awesome healthy thing. Almond butter instead of peanut butter. Yum, good, fine, wonderful. Whatev's. But please sell it in a wonderful glass jar, you know, the way peanut butter used to be sold before greed and convenience really caught hold?

But, alas, no. We need even more convenience than plastic jars. We need on-the-go, super-spiffy wonderfully convenient, single-serve SQUEEZE packs. I wish I was kidding. Can someone please explain this to me? Can someone let me know why this is even a product we "need" in our lives? Is it so much to have to think ahead and pack a little cup of this stuff from the larger jar at home? Are we so far gone we can't think around THIS? Do we really need to add this kind of trash to the mounds out there? Do we need to applaud the amount of resources it takes to manufacture and fill these stupid little things? Do we have to be able to whip our almond butter out of a cute little pocket? Do we need to teach our kids to get used to these things?

Apparently.

I got nuthin' for this one. Just... and I know, I am the one introducing them to y'all... boo for me, I really did wrestle with that one, but I feel the evils of the world need to be seen so we can recognize them for what they are. "It's just a little thing.. no big deal, G-Dub." (my new nick-name!) But, these are ALL little things that add up in a big way. But back to the "just..." Just DON'T buy them. And when you see these things, maybe take some names and maybe spend a few minutes a week tossing off an e-mail to these companies, saying, "We don't care for these irresponsible products." It could help.

Maybe not. Sometimes, I think we are too far gone. Give me some hope, someone. I'm fresh out and they don't put that in a super-slick squeezee-pouch.

Time to Sweat the Small Stuff?

It's nice to give out green tips, and feel like we're helping the world. But sometimes, we just have to let loose and get it off our chests. Guess which I need to do now?

I say it's easy being green, and I really believe it is, but a lot of times it's hard to be a Greenie. Awareness is a terrible thing sometimes. I'll be honest, I get plowed under by the problems of this world really easily. How can we possibly fight the clean coal people? What about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?? Oh no, is that ANOTHER picture of a polar bear on a tiny piece of melting ice??? It's big stuff out there. And I get discouraged.

And then, I see something close to home that REALLY makes me question what the heck I'm doing. I had a "Why Do I Bother" moment just yesterday. Driving to work, I observed 3 teenagers walking somewhere in Hollywood. 2 guys and a girl. The girl pulled an opened bag of Spicy Cheetos out of her massive purse. Mmmm, I love Cheetos. I smiled. Then... THEN... then, she took her gum out of her mouth and, instead of wrapping it in a tiny piece of paper and saving it to throw away later, instead of having made use of one of the millions of trash cans all over Hollywood, 5 of which they just passed, she flung her gum to the sparse grassy area between the sidewalk and the street. She smiled as she did it. She kept chatting as she did it. She didn't think twice. He companions didn't even flinch, didn't even look.

But Green Witch, you ask, why get so bent over such a little thing? I'll tell you why. It's a symptom. It's a tiny little thing that points to much much bigger issues. The complete disregard with which this child littered tells me that she might just throw that Cheetos wrapper on the ground too. Had I been walking and not on my way to work, I might have just followed her to see what happened next. (I know, I know, a little much, a little creepy. Sue me.)

I'll tell you why. Because such utter lack of concern for that piece of gum tells me that she doesn't think anything of what she uses, what she throws away, what is important. It tells me her parents, her school, etc aren't really impressing anything onto her impressionable mind about what manners are and what littering is. The way in which she did it told me she chews gum a lot and this isn't the first time she has flung it heedlessly to the ground for someone to step in. It reminds me that millions of people everywhere every day fling their gum to the Earth without a care. And THAT leads me to realize that it doesn't end with tiny little innocent pieces of gum. No. It STARTS with tiny little innocent pieces of gum. And, because if these kids don't care, these ones that we are working to save from all our bad practices, if they don't care, then why do I bother???

So yeah. It may have been the tiniest littlest thing and it really shouldn't have bugged me so much, but welcome to my head. Sometimes when you keep telling yourself, don't sweat the petty stuff just pet the sweaty stuff, you keep trying and trying... and then the little things, the petty things, sneak on in and just blow the lid off the carefully contained vat of angst/rage/fear/disgust/hopelessness mixture that was only barely controlled anyway....

I think it's time we started sweating the petty stuff. I believe we have ignored it for too long, and now all the little things have landed us in a real big mess.