Was watching a report on a morning show today about how dire the U.S. economy is. Gas prices are at all time highs, the housing market is experiencing its biggest slump in years and home utilities are becoming costlier. A woman was kvetching about how she can only do one load of laundry a day now. What?!?!
I guess this initially shocked me because between my husband and me, we do laundry once every two weeks. But, as the biggest consumer of resources on earth--by a long shot--we haven't had to think twice about how often we do laundry, how much water we consume, or how air conditioned or heated our homes are. Rather than rushing to figure out how to perpetuate this gross consumption, we should be thinking about how we can conserve and become more efficient. Fortunately, a trend of conservation has been ignited and people are looking for ways to reduce consumption.
While I know that , many are suffering a change in lifestyle and wallets are getting affected, I can't help but think that what's happening is actually a good thing. The planet has finite resources and we are exploiting them at an unprecedented pace. We are being challenged to balance and regulate.
Greed begets greed and doesn't it seem like we may be experiencing a consequence of gross excessiveness? I hope we can start "thinking twice" about how we conduct our lifestyles and not be so seduced to consume exhorbitant amounts of things we don't need. When millions in other countries are experiencing major food crisis', think about all that we waste. Nothing annoys me more than when I order a salad and a giant, heaping portion of food that I will never be able to finish shows up. Wouldn't it be great if we could get into the habit of consuming only what is necessary.
