Waste Not

I don’t know if you know this, but I love lists. I’m a freak about making them, and not at all swell at following them. I’m that girl who writes, “Make list” at the top of the page just so I’ll have something to check off later and thus feel accomplished. This is only relevant because that’s the format of today’s post.

Today’s topic is waste! It’s a mostly unnecessary rant about a few of the things I find most wasteful in today’s world.

(I apologize in advance to Scott who has suffered through most of these before.)

1)  Leaf blowers – The leaf blower was possibly invented in the 1950’s (no one seems to know for sure) and it was not, in fact, made for blowing leaves. It was originally intended to spray chemicals (right off the bat it was not environmentally friendly).

My problem with the leaf blower is obvious – they pollute the environment and they’re obnoxious. Let’s also take into consideration what they do. They blow shit from one area to another. You’re not removing the problem; you’re just pushing it aside. It’s like when you used to clean your room by shoving everything under your bed. That’s not making things any better; you still have to sort through that junk eventually.  

2)   Plastic:

a.       Sandwich bags – it is absolutely outrageous that we even use these. Imagine that you have one child who you send to school daily with a sandwich. That’s about 180 school days of plastic baggies that then get thrown away to sit in a landfill for hundreds of years. Now multiply that by every child in every school across the world.

b.      Straws – Yes, I complain about this on a weekly basis, but I’m dead serious about it. The other day a barista gave me double straws in my coffee and I was irritated for about an hour. Maybe I was overreacting, but really? Coffee lids (bad enough that they’re plastic too) have holes in them for drinking out of. It’s not rocket science. According to simplystraws.com, “More than 500 million disposable plastic straws are used in the United States every day and would fill more than 127 school buses daily, or more than 46,400 school bus loads per year”. I don’t know about you, but this literally gives me anxiety. 500 million per day, and that’s just the United States!

c.       INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED PRUNES This is another thing that I become positively livid over whenever I see them. I shit you not, these exist. I’m not sure why anyone needs to preserve prunes when they’re already a dried fruit. I’m also not sure who decides it’s ever necessary to eat only one prune.

d.      CD wrappers – we all hate these, mostly because they’re annoying as hell to open.  What you probably never even consider is that it’s just wasteful.

e.   Bottled water - Water is free, people. It's free! Approximately only 13% of water bottles actually end up getting recycled. That leaves the rest to sit around in landfills, leaching toxins into the air for hundreds of years. Stop it.

I think you can see by now that single use plastic is of the devil, so I’ll end that sub list here.

3     3)      Graveyards - I’m aware that death is something that we still don’t fully comprehend and are a little scared of. I think that most cultures agree by now, however, that if there is a soul it doesn't stay in the body once life has ended. As such, I believe cemeteries are taking up way too much space on our earth – millions of acres and counting. It would be one thing if we buried our dead without a coffin. In that way, they could decompose and give back to the earth like many of our ancestors did. This coffin business is out of hand, though. Caskets are hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. They have pillows and blankets and all sorts of fancy accouterments to keep the dead comfortable. Last I checked, though, the dead don’t really require a lot of comfort. I understand the desire to pay tribute to a loved one, and I understand that it’s hard to let someone go. Cemeteries offer a place for people to visit when they’re missing someone, but keep in mind that our population is up to over 7 billion. That’s a lot of lives and it’s going to be a lot of deaths. We’re already destroying enough of the planet while we’re alive; maybe once we die we could agree to cut it some slack.

(Check out this article on some of the ways other cultures used to dispose of their dead: http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/10-extraordinary-burial-ceremonies-from-around-the-world/ I’m not advocating for all of them, but I definitely enjoy the ones where they leave the bodies outside to be eaten by wild animals)

4) Cat toys - You know what cats play with? Anything they want. String, grass, your toes, your hair, your nose, small woodland creatures. They don't need man made toys (...especially ones made out of plastic)

5) Baby toys - In that same vein, babies also don't need a lot of toys. They're babies. They play with basically anything cats do. As long as you're not letting them chew on electric chords, they should be fine. What babies really need for the first year of their life is lots of face time with humans and pets who love them. They need nurturing and someone to keep them safe. Interpersonal development starts young!

6) Any happy meal or vending machine toy - Again, these are just pieces of plastic that people end up throwing away because their kids already have too many toys. They don't promote creative development. They're a waste of the manufacturers' money and time, and they hurt when you step on them. 

7) Water - This one is pretty obvious, and one I'm pretty guilty of. I love long, hot showers. Think about all the times we let the water run just waiting for it to get hot. That shit is bananas. Just flushing the toilet uses anywhere from 1-5 gallons of water depending on the kind you have. That doesn't sound like a large amount until you consider how many toilets there are in the world. According to WWF, it takes 50 gallons just to make one latte. (http://worldwildlife.org/videos/change-the-way-you-think-about-your-morning-latte) I drink at least one latte a week, and I'm only one person.

8) Time - I don't think I even need to bother explaining this one.

For those of you interested in minimizing your carbon footprint, here are three (plus one for the pet owners) handy sites. I don't want you to think I'm just complaining without offering solutions.

http://simplystraws.com/the-collection
http://www.wehatetowaste.com/

http://www.reuseit.com/

http://www.westpawdesign.com/catalog/cats/best-cat-toys/eco-friendly-cat-toys (In case you really, really have to get your cat some toys)

Eradicate the "Gay"

Let’s do away with the label ‘gay’.

As I’m sure we all know by now, the word originally had everything to do with a cheery, joyful disposition and nothing at all to do with a person having sexual relations with someone of the same sex. What you may or may not know are the several other transitions the word has gone through before it arrived at where it is now. (If you’re interested, check out this article for its intricate history: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/02/how-gay-came-to-mean-homosexual/)

(Note: tangent ahead)

My problem is not so much the word itself but the way it’s used these days as a label - a blanket statement for anyone who may have homosexual tendencies. Our culture is obsessed with labels, of separating people into manageable boxes that we can move about and handle throughout our lives. Starting as early as elementary school we begin migrating into social circles based on generic interests. These grow steadily into the cliques we see throughout middle and high school. By the time we get to college, part of us starts to realize the world shouldn't be like this, but by then it’s too late. With our sororities and fraternities, our glee clubs and sports teams, we’re reminded that in order to keep our social connections we shouldn't broaden our interests too much or it will be harder for us to find anyone else remotely like minded.

The obvious problem with labels is that once they’re applied to us, they stick. What we have failed to realize as a culture thus far is that, while labels may help us to individually relate to people, they do more harm than good in the long run by causing us to judge one another when someone does something uncharacteristic of one's label. Bible thumpers can’t smoke cigarettes or have sex. Tree huggers better be recycling and saving the whales or they don't fit in with the rest. Goths shouldn't smile, emo kids should always have the same hair and tight pants.

By now I think you know where I’m going with this, and I can almost hear you protesting that being gay is definitely not the same thing as being a hipster. I disagree. These days being gay is either a stigma or a blessing. Homosexuality has never had this much steady media exposure, and it’s been made abundantly clear that you better choose a definitive, exuberant side on the topic or so help you. If gay is too broad a term for you, we can even break it into smaller subcategories like 'lesbian' or 'bisexual'. What matters is that you have an exact label for what you do with your love life and that you share it with all of us.

Here’s where we get to the tricky part. What about the people who, after a while, aren't 'gay’ anymore? Or what about people who have lived their entire life as a ‘straight’ person but are reevaluating that? I’ve heard the arguments about people who have kept their sexuality repressed. I've heard about the people who are confused about their sexuality and therefore it “doesn't count” until they've discovered their “true selves”. I've heard the arguments for being born gay, for nature vs. nurture, etc. Of course I know many people who definitely prefer one gender over another. While those will all eventually be discussed in later entries, what I’m bringing to the table now is this – it shouldn't matter. Not only should it not matter, but what gives any of us the right to relabel someone should their preference ever change? How dare we.

I knew a woman who was dating a man who used to be gay. He’d been dating men for several years before meeting her and falling in love with her. There are generally three common reactions for a situation like this:

 1) “He obviously wasn’t really gay.”

2) “He’s still gay and denying that side of him.”

3) “He’s not really gay. He’s bisexual.”

Let’s think about this. Was this man involved in happy, fulfilling relationships with other men previously? Yes. Is he now happily involved with a woman? Yes. Does it change who he is fundamentally as a person? No. Most important question of all – should it matter to anyone else?

What it boils down to for me is that it’s really no one’s business who you’re interested in/ attracted to.* While I find it absolutely mind boggling that there are still states that can fire you for having relations with the same gender, I’m ten times more appalled by the fact that anyone should care. I cannot emphasize this enough: your love life does not define who you are as a person. And! It’s up to no one else to heap titles upon you and then change them based on your own choices.

Humans were born with the gift and bane of curiosity and indecision. What a blessing it is to be able to change our minds or follow our hearts wherever they may lead us, yet how exhausting! As if being a complex human isn't wearying enough, we are also cursed with the burden of having our very peers label us, segregate us, compartmentalize us. What if this were something we didn't have to deal with anymore? Can you imagine how liberating it would be? 

We wouldn't be fighting this battle for ‘gay’ rights because we would be focusing on the rights of all humans equally.

When I brought this topic up to a friend of mine recently he asked, “Well what word will we use then?” My answer was, “We won’t.”

I admit that in the past I've been guilty of using these terms. By all accounts, I was raised in this same culture you were. I admit that it’s more comfortable (and by all means easier) to tell someone you’re not interested in them because you’re straight or gay. I pledge now, however, to work my hardest to change all that. The next time someone asks me my sexual orientation, I will politely decline to answer. I no longer even want to think of myself as having one, because that sounds like a limitation. I’m a human, after all. I’m prone to change as often as I breathe, and I plan to.

*Note: While it does not matter what gender you prefer, there are obviously some standards I have when it comes to sexual encounters. Sexual abuse/rape, pedophilia, and bestiality are never, ever appropriate.