Green Guilt

For a minute, I thought that Guilt was one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Then I remembered that it's actually Gluttony and Greed, not Guilt. Guilt is the opposite of a Deadly Sin, because at least you are feeling remorse. But the thing is, I feel a little bit guilty because of my crazy consuming past. Back in the old days, Sparky and I bought what ever we felt like buying, at least it seemed that way. But now we only buy the necessities - mostly food and gas, and maybe the odd and end here and there for Bee. We've cut way back on our consumerism, and for that I feel good and it does help alleviate some of the regret I have for buying as though there were no tomorrow. It's better for the planet and better on our pocketbooks. Also, I like the idea of buying local and/or growing food, and our Victory Garden is a step in that direction. We don't use plastic or paper bags anymore, we gave that up a long time ago. We've switched out all our light bulbs to the low emission ones, we don't have air conditioning, and we have a tiny gas wall heater upstairs that we only use when it's really cold, so not all that often here in Los Angeles. We've turned our water heater down, and only do laundry when we have a completely full load. During winter in order to stay warm on cooler days we wear layers of sweaters, use warm flannel sheets, and Bee wears her flannel footie pajamas to bed every night. We don't drive very often, no big commutes here in Miserland. So we are okay on that front. But I'm sure there is more that we can do, hence some more of this guilty feeling, or Green Guilt. I feel a little bit like Schindler during the end of the movie where he is going on about how he could have saved more Jews, how his watch could have saved one more life. There is still more that the Misers can do, we can be greener still, we haven't yet gone far enough.

A couple of more things that The Misers are going to do to improve our ginormous  carbon footprint (the U.S., which is 5% of the world's population, consumes around 25%  of the world's oil):

• Dry our clothes outside everyday that we can - we live in Los Angeles so we can and should do this year round.
• Plant an apple tree. Sparky cut down the Bald Cypress today in preparation, and although we are sad to lose a tree, growing one that produces fruit is better in the long run.
• Gather all the endless stuff we don't need around the house and donate it to charities. This is a win-win situation: less clutter and simpler lives for The Misers, and clothing and other items for people and families in need.

If anybody out there has some innovative ideas, helpful hints, etc, for maintaining a green lifestyle, it would be cool to hear from you. The most beautiful thing in the world is the world, the images of it from space are amazing. The swirls of blues and greens - it looks so alive it makes me weep to see it. I don't mean to get all preachy, but I want this place to be around for Bee, and my nephews and nieces, and my friends kids and my friends nephews and nieces, and all of their future progeny. But in order for this to happen we need to take better care of our planet starting yesterday. 

Love, 

The Misers

Echo Park

Los Angeles, CA

U.S.A.

North America

Planet Earth