And The World Goes Black

All across the globe on Saturday lights went out in honor of Earth Hour. By all accounts it was a huge success and I’m sure those that spearheaded this movement are pleased with the results. While we participated I realize there are many that didn’t and frankly I don’t really care. So, that is why it surprises me so much that many of those NOT participating were so vocal in their opposition. What’s it to them if others do choose to participate? Why do some view it as a personal affront to their ideology if someone wants to shut off his/her lights?

Furthermore, I really don’t grasp the REASON behind the opposition to conserving resources. Even if you don’t believe in global warming, which unfortunately many don’t, and even if you feel it is your duty, mission, and God-given right to rape and pillage our earth and waste its resources why is the general idea of conservation so ridiculed and loathed?

Why would anyone want to pump vast amounts of pollution into our air making it more difficult to breathe? Anyone who has been to California can attest to the fact that pollution is a problem. Even if you feel it does nothing to actually damage the earth’s ozone layer or contribute to global warming why would you want to breath that air or allow your children to breath that air? Why is one’s concern for the quality of air he/she breaths criticized as part of some liberal left agenda?

Additionally, why not cut down on water, electric, and gas usage simply as a means to cut costs? For those that consider themselves fiscally conservative it is amazing the amount of waste (in the form of their almighty dollar) they are willing to waste just out of spite. Even if you believe, in my opinion naively and incorrectly, that there is an unlimited supply finite resources (there is a reason they are called FINITE as opposed to INFINITE) wouldn’t we all like to see a lower water bill or electric bill? While my husband and I are conscious about the resources we use because we do believe we have an obligation to treat the earth responsibly not far in the back of our minds is the bottom line: how much will this cost?

It is interesting to me that so many who disagree with the science of environmentalism have to not simply just disagree but to make it their personal mission to insult, criticize, and ridicule those who are concerned about the effects we have on our earth. Is it not enough to just simply disagree? If not, why?

Going back to Earth Hour. If it is not important to you why not leave your lights on, watch your TV, work on your computer, or take a drive you would have otherwise taken? But why lambaste those who choose to participate for an hour. Not only that but why make it a point to use more electricity or other resources than you would normally? To prove a point? What exactly is the point and to whom are you proving it? To me it seems the only point made is that you are a moron who just increased your utility costs for no reason other than spite.

I simply don’t know when, for many, caring about our earth became such a bad thing. Why is that something to mock and ridicule or label a liberal conspiracy to undermine the family or other individual rights? It must be a heavy burden to constantly feel so persecuted. As my husband likes to say, “Get down off that cross, we need the wood.” I guess simply I’ll close by saying that the illogical rational of many in our nation is simply frightening and mind-boggling. It is one thing to disagree, but another to make it a personal obsession and mission to relentlessly try to discredit, insult, or crucify those who hold beliefs opposite to your own.

Head in the Clouds

I love playing outside with my kids because you get to observe and experience things through their eyes. Many things that I would overlook or not find amazement in, provide my kids with tremendous excitement and joy. To be able to experience that by extension is an absolute blessing. Both our children love the outdoors and, weather permitting, spend hours outside each day.


But there is a problem. My son. He does not pay attention to where he is walking....EVER. The poor kid is so engrossed with whatever he is observing or chasing or playing with that he often trips, falls, runs into stationary objects, etc. It would be funny if it weren't so dangerous. (Yes, I realize all kids do this to some extent, but admittedly my son seems to do this a little more than most). I remind him constantly to watch where he is walking, to keep his head up, to not walk forward while he is looking backwards. Doesn't make a difference. The kid is focused, just not on where he is walking. I don't want to squash his intensity or his natural curiosity and ability to become fully engrossed in whatever captivates his attention. But I would also like to put an end to the excessive head injuries the poor kid continues to receive.


So, seriously how do you get your kid to stop spending so much time looking at the bugs, and rocks, and dirt, and flowers and start looking at the wall he is about to crack his head open on or the rock he is about to trip over or fall on? Discuss.

Rotating Skyscraper

I read about this in the new National Geographic. It is one of the coolest things I have seen. I would love to be able to see firsthand this architectural and technological wonder. One of the coolest parts is that there is a drive-in elevator which lets residents park right outside their front doors. What will they think of next?

Social Butterfly

My daughter has turned into a social creature. She loves interaction with other children. I am constantly amazed at her ease of making friends at the park, play dates, ballet class, at church, and other social functions. She and I are alike in so many ways, but this is not one of those ways. She definitely has inherited my husband's sense of social ease.

I enjoy my friends, don't get me wrong. But I am usually just as content alone. I rarely crave the social interactions like she does. She has quite a few cousins and one is just a few months younger than she. My daughter has been asking for weeks now if she could come over and play. Every morning we get up she asks me to call my sister to see if her cousin can come over to our house. Sure, no problem....except for the fact that my kids were sick for over a month. Then just as mine started to recover my sister's kids became sick. I've been staving off a very persistent 3 year old for a solid month now.

Fortunately, tomorrow that will change. My sister is dropping my niece off for a couple of hours to play with my daughter. I don't think I could have lived through another day of my daughter following me around with a telephone telling me to call my sister.

Why I Have an Ulcer

I am a worrier. I worry about quite a bit on a day to day basis. Not to the point where it renders me incapacitated or anything like that, but enough to cause some unneeded stress and anxiety. I worry about the health and safety of my family and friends, especially my children. I worry about finances and job security in this economy even though my husband just made a smart career move to a career about as stable as they come. I worry about the type of world we will have left for our children and grandchildren. The fact that so many have a blatant disregard for our world and its resources is greatly disturbing to me. How so many can turn a blind eye to the effects our wastefulness has caused and then still tuck their children in at night, promising them the world, seems at the very least hypocritical if not a blatant lie.

I worry about the type of impression the world's ugliness will leave on my children and if the leadership and example my husband and I are providing and instilling on their ever impressionable brains will be enough to negate those negative influences. I worry about "values" that are not shared by me and my husband being imposed on my children at an impressionable age. I worry about sending my children to school when we live in a world where school shootings have become, if not the norm, at least too common. I worry that people seem to have such easy access to guns and that most school shooters take guns from inside their own homes, not buy them from some scary man on the street as so many would like us to believe. I worry about a lot.

However, one of the best things I have done for my children is to not let them see me worry about these things. Sure, they've seen me stressed or upset at times, but I am super-conscious, especially around my sponge of a daughter to not voice or express these worries. I don't want my caution or concern (or at times panic and despair) to impact or influence her love and experience of all things new. I want her and our son to have a healthy fear of things like not running out into the street or not talking to people we don't know, but I don't want her to think that the world is some big, mean, scary place that is out to get her and her brother.

She is so much like me in that she internalizes everything and weeks to months later will bring up something she heard ages ago. It always makes me sad to think that she might have been worried about that for so long. So for as long as possible I want her to experience the wonder that childhood presents. To see the world through the eyes of a child is a blessing and those of us with children, who take the time to really listen to and interact with our children, know what I mean.

When I think about the term "innocence lost" it makes me hyper-aware that childhood used to last so much longer...even just from the time I was a kid. Kids become aware of the world's evils and dangers at such an early age that it is scary. Nothing made this more concrete for me than when I was teaching. The lives some of those students had endured are utterly heartbreaking. This realization just makes me want to provide a safe, loving environment and provide experiences that cultivate that "innocent" time and not do anything to shorten it or speed it along.

I want both of my children to one day look back on their childhood with memories of being carefree and excited and fun, but most importantly provided and cared for and most certainly adored and loved. I think that is probably what all parents want for their children.

Despite all my worrying I also have an innate sense that things will work out. I just trust that somehow, someway things will work out for the best. Maybe that's naive or overly optimistic, but it's how I feel 99 percent of the time. So, now that I have shared my neurotic innermost thoughts, what are some of your worries or concerns that you think about on a regular basis?

Tree Huggin' Dirt Worshipper

I admit that I am more "green" than a lot of my family or friends, but I also acknowledge that in the realm of "green" many, many people have me beat. I mention that because I’m not a total granola, earth-loving, hippie freak….although personally I happen to love granola, earth loving, hippie freaks. However, the way people treat our environment, especially as of late, has me all hot and bothered. The fact that sooooo many refuse to acknowledge the negative impact we have on our earth bothers me more than I could clearly articulate.

I do my part to contribute to the pollution and waste, don’t get me wrong. I also like to think that I do at least as much to counterbalance my family’s waste. I’m not saying we should all give up our cars and walk, but would buying a car that gets more than 7 miles to the gallon kill ya? I am ashamed to admit that I drive an SUV (a small one, but an SUV nonetheless). I drive this more out of necessity than true desire. I would love a prius. A prius won’t hold 2 kids and all the crap that goes with two kids and a possible third kid at some point. I also understand that a larger family requires a larger car. What bothers me is the people who drive these HUGE SUV’s when they have 1 kid, or even worse, no kids. Is that car truly necessary? Aside from the environmental impact these massive cars have what about the dent it is unnecessarily creating in their pocket books?

Water waste also has me irked these days. Why does it seem like everyone feels the need to water his/her lawn or wash the aforementioned SUV’s at 2:00 in the afternoon? Can it not wait until 6 in the evening or 7 in the morning? It is such a waste. I wish people would be more conscious of the carbon footprint they are leaving on our earth and the amount of resources they waste daily and take steps to reduce pollution and waste and unnecessary misuse of our resources.

People assume the cavalier attitude that these resources were given to us to use and abuse for our own benefit with no regard for future generations. We live in a time where if this continues our children and children’s children will not live in a world of plenty. I think it is our responsibility to leave this world in better condition than it was when it was handed down to us. If we continue in this direction we will not be leaving this world in good condition to our children. We are a nation of gluttons. We take and take and use and use and just assume that there will always be enough. I have news for the masses. There will not be enough if we continue to waste at the ridiculous rate we currently waste our resources.

I went to CarbonCounter.org and typed in my family’s possessions and uses. We use 18.46 metric tons of CO2 a year. In the realm of things we are pretty low on the waste meter, but we could do more to reduce our footprint. We could trade in the SUV for starters. If everyone did just a little bit more we could make a huge difference. I’m not asking people to forgo the lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to or abandon all the little luxuries they’ve acquired, but little changes here and there add up and would mean the world of difference for this earth and it’s future inhabitants.

Environmental Issues

Found this article interesting. I don't know how any logical, thinking person with an IQ greater than 0 can deny the existance of global warming. Here is yet more evidence.

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20080623/SCI.Warming.Scientist/