Low Impact Fummer

Long I have admired No Impact Man, Colin Beavan, and have been following his year-long "no impact experiment" since March. And thrown in there is my growing interest in eating local and /or organic food inspired by Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Actually, my interest in being a more conscious consumer and eater dates back to my first attempt at giving up meat but in the last year I've really stepped it up. Admittedly, it's hard sometimes. And while Michael is incredibly supportive of the changes we've made (he better be since I'm the one who goes to the grocery and cooks for us), I know it's harder on him than me but he's a good sport about it anyway.

There are many reasons for not wanting to eat meat, but not one of them has to do with not eating animals. I think it's okay to eat meat, because, hey, it tastes good. But I try not to because I don't agree with factory farming because it's bad for the animals and bad for the environment. Sometimes I fall of the wagon (like today) and eat a little meat. But when I do, I try to make sure it came from a local farmer who treats her/his animals humanely. Besides that, as a society, we eat more meat than we should and a diet rich in veg, grains and legumes is a much healthier option.

And when I buy groceries, I try to buy locally grown items, environmentally-friendly cleaning products, tissues and t.p. and I try to limit the amount of convenience foods I buy. And I severely restrict the amount of produce that I buy out of season that must be transported from California or even another country. That means no more bananas, no asparagus, no fresh tomatoes (although, who wants to eat them in winter anyway? They are so tasteless and grainy), and absolutely no strawberries in January. Or grapes.

What this means is that I have to think about about what I cook, what I buy, do I have the time to walk to the drugstore or do I need to drive, etc. all the time. But I think it's important. And there are things we could all be doing to be more conscious of reducing our energy needs, being kinder to the environment and feeding our bodies the best food we can. And in case you don't hear enough about this in the news already, here are some of the things that Michael and I do:

• join a CSA farm or shop at a farmer's market
• buy organic meat, dairy and produce when you can
• use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins at meal times
• don't buy bottled water
• recycle (yes, it's true that recycling uses fossil fuels but it beats putting all the trash in a landfill)
• walk, bike or take public transportation when you can (public transportation is sub-optimal in Dayton so we walk when we can and drive when we can't)
• turn off lights when you leave a room and don't take long showers (I can tell you that's a hard one to give up)
• wash your laundry on cold and try to do a number of loads at a time to maximize the energy your dryer uses or hang your clothes on a line
• keep your thermostat at 68 degrees (at our house it's never above 64) when you're home and drop in the low 60's or upper 50's at night or when you are away from home
  
• exchange incandescent light bulbs for energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs

Every little bit helps.

The right to be smoke free...

I don't usually make a habit of airing dirty family laundry on here but this is something that's been bothering me for a long time. A. Very. Long. Time.

It has become painfully clear to me that my mother, despite her many health issues, is not going to quit smoking. I am not the only person to struggle with this issue, but it is especially painful for me since I've tried very hard to be supportive during said health problems. My brother, on the other hand, is supportive in a different way (read: not my way which obviously means he's doing it wrong). After a recent conversation with him, however, it became all too clear that our mom is not going to quit smoking. Ever.

And the smoking is probably the biggest reason that she and I argue. Hell, we discussed it in therapy A LOT, it was that big. So, since I can't make my mom quit smoking and my efforts to get her to quit aren't working, then something has to change. I can't change her but I can change the way I choose to deal with this situation. So, I told her that we would love for her to visit and we would love for her to stay with us at X-mas but she can't smoke while she's here. And I don't just mean not smoking in the house which has never been allowed anyway, but no smoking at all. No smoking on the porch, in the car, at the gas station up the street. No smoking at all while she's here. Second hand smoke is nasty. It smells bad and it lingers on the smoker and anything she touches for days. And it is gross and disgusting. And when a smoker has to go outside and smoke then that person is leaving what you're doing at that time or if you have to wait for that person to finish a cigarette before getting back in the car to go somewhere then it holds you up and it makes your car smell bad. Besides that, second hand smoke smell is every bit as bad for my allergies as being right next to a burning cigarette.

So, that's my decision and I'm sticking to it. If my mom can't honor that request then I guess she won't be coming to visit. And that would make me really sad. I know that cigarettes are terribly addictive and my mom has been smoking longer than she hasn't but it is a disease and cancer-causing addiction. And I'm not going to compromise on this issue any longer.