Conservatives and the Earth
Deal Abbott posted a week or so ago about religion and the environmental tide that is turning in Leftist and Hollywood circles. With Literary Girl's recent comments on living green, I have been thinking a lot about how my little family lives our life. Dean made a fabulous comment I want to share here:
"There is, however, another kind of conservative, There are those of us, like Wendell Berry, who believe that traditional family structures, traditional ways of arranging our social and economic lives all hinge on how we treat the world around us. There are, in other words, a few conservatives out there who insist conservatives ought actually to conserve
something. To do otherwise is to betray our ideals."
That quote rings true in my mind. If I am a conservative, I rightly ought to conserve something. That would include how I raise my family, what I buy, what I don't buy, where I drive, what I spend time on, and how I invest my money. I've always been a bit green. I grew up with parents who had a HUGE compost pile. We composted everything possible and we took our trash directly to the dump since it was just outside of town and we lived fairly close. Now there are multi million dollar homes right near the old dump and I fear the groundwater will become contaminated from all the old awful stuff dumped in the dump.
Anyway, I still like to grow my own food and I like to cook from scratch. I like to buy cotton clothes and I like to buy leather shoes and sandals. I reuse my plastic containers and I try not to use plastic bags. I buy houses with lots of room outside for crops and fruit trees. Yet, my husband does not share my penchant for "earthy living". He recently told me he is going to throw away soda cans instead of take them back to the store. He doesn't buy into the global warming idea as it stands and he would only consider an electric car if it was economically feasible and the best option from all the cars available.
So I don't know where this is leading, but I know I want to own less and use what I own. I am working through boxes of junk this week and I hope to have the closet upstairs cleared out by the end of March. Our church is holding the Mexico Mission rummage sale in 3 weeks and I will be first in line with my truck full of items for donation.
"There is, however, another kind of conservative, There are those of us, like Wendell Berry, who believe that traditional family structures, traditional ways of arranging our social and economic lives all hinge on how we treat the world around us. There are, in other words, a few conservatives out there who insist conservatives ought actually to conserve
something. To do otherwise is to betray our ideals."
That quote rings true in my mind. If I am a conservative, I rightly ought to conserve something. That would include how I raise my family, what I buy, what I don't buy, where I drive, what I spend time on, and how I invest my money. I've always been a bit green. I grew up with parents who had a HUGE compost pile. We composted everything possible and we took our trash directly to the dump since it was just outside of town and we lived fairly close. Now there are multi million dollar homes right near the old dump and I fear the groundwater will become contaminated from all the old awful stuff dumped in the dump.
Anyway, I still like to grow my own food and I like to cook from scratch. I like to buy cotton clothes and I like to buy leather shoes and sandals. I reuse my plastic containers and I try not to use plastic bags. I buy houses with lots of room outside for crops and fruit trees. Yet, my husband does not share my penchant for "earthy living". He recently told me he is going to throw away soda cans instead of take them back to the store. He doesn't buy into the global warming idea as it stands and he would only consider an electric car if it was economically feasible and the best option from all the cars available.
So I don't know where this is leading, but I know I want to own less and use what I own. I am working through boxes of junk this week and I hope to have the closet upstairs cleared out by the end of March. Our church is holding the Mexico Mission rummage sale in 3 weeks and I will be first in line with my truck full of items for donation.
Comments
I don't take cans or bottles back to the store. Frankly, we don't buy pop so the cans are usually left by someone visiting or a random "hubby bought one today" sorta thing. I just curbside recycle them because it's not worth 10 cents for me to make a trip to the store. Will your hubby go for that at least? Happy medium perhaps.
The DH