Speaking with a good friend recently, lamenting over my latest eco-anxiety involving humane removal of spider webs, she said something that shocked me to the core. “Not everyone loses sleep over separating plastics by number for recycling or whether cobwebs are compostable..”
“That’s nothing!” I spluttered. “What about the kombucha SCOBY disaster, the ongoing compost ordeal or the letter to the ants . . .” Shaking her head, my dear friend says, “Nope, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Maybe you could write it down, you know, blog about all that.”
So that’s how this all got started. This is my log of the self-inflicted torture I endure on a daily basis as I stumble along the fine line between Earth-loving intentions and eco-madness. A lifelong Earth-lover, despairing the dire prognoses for our home planet, I drive myself to the verge of insanity on a daily basis, desperate to believe that there’s anything I can do that will make a real difference. I end up over-analyzing every act of daily living, from washing vegetables to dealing with an ant invasion, exhausting myself in the process. I admit, on some days, I just wanna drive my car three blocks to the drive-through window for a fast food fix and toss the bag out the window, not a care in the world.
Then an image of my future grandchildren romping and thriving on a beautiful, healthy planet comes into mind, and I find myself back on the kitchen floor sorting out #2 plastic bags from the #4s.
Sometimes, rarely, magically, an epiphany dawns and I can tie up some wrenching concern in a pretty bow and send out for publication (like this one here).
But most days, that’s so much pie in the sky. And it’s not what’s in this blog. These posts look more like the inside of my compost bin: the contents may not pretty, but, given enough time and breath, they just might become earthen gold.
If you’re looking for quick and tidy steps to a more Earth-friendly lifestyle, I urge you to look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a companion walking that fine line between eco-caring and eco-crazy, then please read on. Feel free to share any comments or stories of your own brushes with eco-madness. Perhaps if we can grasp hands through the pages of the Internet, we just might keep each other on this side of madness.
