Everyone Needs a Thneed

"But now," says the Once-ler "now that you're here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not."

Theodor Giesel knew it in 1971, thirty-eight years ago.

With the holiday shopping season quickly approaching, I find it more and more evident that people (aka we Americans) are downright obsessed with stuff. Think of the things that you purchased over the last year as gifts alone. How many of them were useless things? Decorations with a sole purpose to clutter up our lives. Knick-knacks. How much happiness do you think that those items truly brought to the receiver, and to you, the purchaser? Mere moments? Soon they will become fodder to fill boxes in the basement and garage, and once we feel that we can part with them, they may make it to a yard sale table, but more likely than not, they will find a forever home in a trashcan/dumpster/dump. I shudder to think how long it takes a garden gnome to decompose.





With the green washing trend sure effect the items that you give as gifts this holiday season and throughout the coming year(s), it begs the question, is it really better to buy something "eco friendly" just for the sake of buying something?

Think of your garbage. trash. waste, refuse. How much of it did you really need, or how much of it did you want, and opted for something "green" when it was an unnecessary purchase to begin with? I am not immune, and will be the first to admit that I have made many spontaneous purchases because it's something that I wanted. Sure, I tried to make my choices with low impact living in mind, but would it have been better to not make the purchase at all? Isn't that the ultimate low impact choice?

Take, for instance, the difference between my lunch yesterday and my lunch today. Yesterday I drove to an organic market, purchased a organic salad from the salad bar in recycled packaging, and an organic iced tea in a recycled coated-cardboard container. The best intentions...until I finished my lunch and really looked at the garbage that I was left with. Of course it was recycled and recyclable, but was it necessary? Could I have forgone all of the packaging and the fuel that I used to drive to the market? Last night I packed my own lunch in reusable containers and filled my Sigg bottle with water. No "eco friendly" purchases for me today, but I am beginning to realize that no purchase is better than an unnecessary purchase, however "green".