PDF And now, a break from my writing …
Not too long ago, I wrote a longish article about plastic bags. That’s all, just those ubiquitous plastic bags you see snagged on trees, lining gutters or washing downstream. But even that thumbnail sketch took several long posts and a considerable commitment of time to read. (If you think they took a long time to read, just consider how long they took to write! For every word in the final article, at least three were cut from the drafts.)
What does this have to do with gardening?
The way I see things is that we can garden our little faces off but if we don’t also tackle our relationship to our possessions, curb our mindless consumerism, and reconsider our personal values, we undo all the good that our little plot in the backyard might have done. And then some.
The very next time you go to the store and get distracted by the “ooh, shiny” … whether it’s an electronic gadget you absolutely must have or the latest in fashions that shows that you are ‘”au courant”, take a closer look, and imagine that object magnified by a factor of 70. That’s the waste load we needlessly place on the planet when we mindlessly purchase things.
Just look at it and ask yourself if owning it is worth the true price.
If it is, go ahead and buy it.
