Beyond green

I'm inherently insecure although I'm getting over it these days. I can't afford to be. Having said that, I might be deemed obnoxious since my strong opinions are becoming less diluted and polite. If I didn't have three children who are my responsibility and whose future I'm profoundly interested in, I probably would still be secretly sending in money to Sierra Club and other environmental organizations while hypocritically driving to the store instead of biking or using a billion paper towels a day to keep things clean.

Having been raised in Texas, I should be used to being different. I was a vegetarian in high school when my fellow students either never thought twice about meat or were actively raising cattle as a part of "Ag". I didn't go to church. I was less interested in fashion than I was human rights and the state of the world. People didn't understand me then and they still don't quite understand me now. I seem so normal but I'm very weird, apparently. Even in the early days of our marriage, my hubby saw me as the environmentalist in our family but now he may have even surpassed me. Go figure.

I hate self-righteousness so I hope I don't come across that way. I don't expect everyone to believe what I do. The road to becoming an environmentally minded person is varied. Some people are born with an interest in nature and have the fortune to be surrounded by people who help them experience it from an early age. Others reach it from a health perspective when they realize how their mortality is influenced heavily by what we dump into our environment. Still others may begin focusing on the environment when it occurs to them how much our way of life may soon be challenged by our supreme dependence on the finite resource of oil. I'm sure there are many other avenues to it but those are just a few. I personally always had an interest in nature and had the fortune to be introduced to its magic by my parents and family. In my family, life is celebrated in all its beauteous and magnificent forms.

I'm experiencing a metamorphosis these days and I think I may becoming something even more radical than I was in the past. I used to talk myself out of changing certain things I did because I was plain cynical about the impact it would have. It's hard to feel like you're making any difference when you're surrounded by Hummers and huge SUVs. At least in Dallas, people are almost arrogant about not being environmentally conscious. After all, it's a God-given right that we do everything big, bad and wasteful. What I find particularly amusing is when a wasteful practice such as throwing any and everything away is considered not only normal but THE way. When you go to the trouble of freecycling, reusing, recycling you're weird. Strange that being resourceful and unwasteful is not valued these days. I don't get it. What is there to be proud of of throwing more shit into a landfill? Beats me.

So, my hubby and I are doing a little at a time to change our lives from wasteful to resourceful. From changing light bulbs to energy-efficient ones, using torn up receiving blankets instead of paper towels, biking or riding the train instead of driving, we're living more simply and mindfully. Many would argue that we're inherently violating environmental ethics by having had 3 children. True. We've added to overpopulation by doing more than "replacing" ourselves. All I can say is that it was unintentional (although very welcomed). Our goal is to raise our children in an environment which will hopefully encourage them to respect their place in this world and help them understand how choices make a direct impact on the world despite what some may believe. Ultimately, there being here has served more as an inspiration for us to fight for what we believe in - for us to live how we feel our society needs to in order for our kids to have a better quality of life than they'd have if we didn't.