Isn’t it interesting that old is new again, like organic food or being “green” by recycling?  All of a sudden people realized it’s bad to put pesticides on or inject the food we eat with chemicals; how brilliant of them! Could we be missing a simple fix to being green that’s beyond recycling? I found this great timeline on the History of Recycling.  The world has been working on the premise for centuries. 

Let’s step back in time to MY childhood which is not quite a century yet – ha ha. 

We had milk delivered in glass bottles and returned the bottles to the milkman.  We used paper straws and had to drink quickly before they got too soggy; they were paper. We covered left-overs in glass dishes with reusable covers sort of like shower caps.  And we used the popular re-sealable and washable Tupperware bowls to keep food fresh.  We wrapped our sandwiches in wax paper (no plastic sandwich bags) and took lunches in paper bags.  Oh and there weren’t plastic coffee pods, just percolator coffee pots that sounded awesome.  We didn’t have disposable dish cloths or throw away foamy scrubbers.  We had cloth napkins and carried cloth sacks to the grocery or were given paper bags.  We hung our laundry out to dry, no dryer sheets necessary.  We didn’t have paper towels; we used a dish towel to clean up messes.  And for diapers, I actually used cloth for both my ‘now’ grown-up children until potty training time. 

So America, besides the straws and plastic bags we’re all worried about, what about the trash generated from fast food? In a 2018 article from Franchise Help stated that “Globally, fast food generates revenue of over $570 billion – that is bigger than the economic value of most countries. In the United States revenue was a whopping $200 billion in 2015 – quite a lot of growth since the 1970 revenue of $6 billion.” That’s a lot of paper trash.

I’m not a hater on fast food, but this cannot be good for our waistlines or our “waste bins.”

What surprised me in California, which has banned plastic bags and frowns on straws, is the huge lack of recycling centers.  How is it possible that the people in California “lost out on at least $308 million in nickel deposits on cans and bottles in 2018, largely because it’s increasingly difficult to find a place to recycle them…”  KTLA.com. 

And while we’re at it should we be including those few gazillion cardboard boxes that are generated by that oh so convenient Amazon delivery company in this discussion?

Will the ban of plastic straws and plastic grocery bags keep the world from being polluted?  It obviously can’t hurt but how do we get other countries on board?  An article carried by Deutsche Welle in 2017 stated, “90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world’s oceans gets flushed through just 10 rivers: The Yangtze, the Indus, Yellow River, Hai River, the Nile, the Ganges, Pearl River, Amur River, the Niger, and the Mekong.”  How do we make the world aware?  It seems that many just don’t know or don’t have access to recycling centers.

After mulling over all of these points, I wanted to come up with some earth-shattering solution to be presented on Earth Day 2019.

The solution, at least for Americans, was very simple:   TIME

We have one or two jobs and our children need to be involved in something 24-7.  Our work week is no longer 40 hours but rather 60, making shopping on-line for clothing, food and entertainment a way of life, which then generates a whole lot of boxes.

Drive-thru food is convenient when there’s no TIME to cook.  Disposable packaging means less TIME doing dishes, cleanup or planning.  We don’t really think when we reach for a plastic bag to store a slice of cheese or grab a paper plate to hold a few chips.  If we slowed down we’d grab a reusable bowl to store that cheese and a glass plate for those chips.

With more TIME we could reach for reusable things not just recyclable things.  We would be present in our lives instead of living a blur to get us from this day to the next; a blur that causes us to do things that are more convenient than conscientious. We might like being calmer and choose a lifestyle that affords us more TIME which would ultimately help us create less trash. 

Well that was easy…. Enjoy your Earth Day 2019!!

Grateful for you and living on this big blue planet,

Sheree

We went to see the movie “Unplanned” this weekend.  Knowing it was going to be intense I tried psyching myself up. I believed I could logically get through it, plus the major TV channels weren’t advertising it, so that also piqued my interest. 

Why shouldn’t this side of “a woman’s choice” be told?

Jeff and I sat with our neighbor Sandy.  We had our “just-in-case” tissues in hand as we sat and watched previews of cute movies coming out this summer. Finally, the movie began and it was pretty intense right off the bat.

As my chest tightened and tears flowed, I was surprised I became so emotional so quickly. It wasn’t from a ‘bloody’ standpoint, although there was blood.  It’s not blood you’d see in every action movie or video game caused from bombs, guns or knives.  This blood occurs from a procedure on a table and pills to induce an abortion. 

My tough façade melted in front of the screen as my one fricking tissue became soaked with tears that just could not be stopped.  Jeff was lucky, he had a cloth handkerchief!

Possible spoiler alert:  In one scene PP performs a vacuum aspiration using an ultrasound to guide them.  The baby with all its limbs developed, appears to push away from the suction device.

This is the scene I couldn’t catch my breath because I’ve seen my baby push away in an ultrasound just like that. At around 20 weeks into my second pregnancy I was 35 years old.  My doc stated I needed an amniocentesis being an “older” mother, the baby could have defects. 

I had no history in my family of losing a child or birth defects, nevertheless I went along with it. They numbed my large abdomen, and did an ultrasound to locate the baby, which we now call Emma! The nurse attempted to insert a very large needle into my belly, but couldn’t pierce the sack to take a sample of the amniotic fluid. Watching the ultrasound we saw our little girl consciously move out of the way of the incoming needle.  The nurse withdrew the needle and tried again.  Once again the uterus lining didn’t give way and the baby moved to avoid the intrusion.   The nurse asked us to come back the next week and try again.  We both looked at each other and said “uh no.” No matter the health of this baby – who has been waving at us through the ultrasound comes out – she’s ours.

This movie pretty much puts the purpose of Planned Parenthood (PP) right up in your face.  Sadly, in my youth, I was as naïve as the author of the book as to the purpose of PP.  I believed PP was there to “just” provide birth control, female tests and advice on “planning” births.

I AM NOT KIDDING YOU, I really did!

The headlines in the news, for the past few years have made it crystal clear that the number one purpose of PP is to provide abortions.

I read the reviews of the movie which follow the pro-life and pro-abortion lines.  I looked through them for a mention that maybe, just maybe someone would suggest there was an alternative to termination, but I didn’t really find it. The one thing that amazed me in those reviews that no one touches on the physical and emotional wounds that a woman could deal with forever.

The movie has a MPAA film rating:  R – Restricted – Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.

I don’t agree with the rating, but perhaps this makes a case that parents should be with their 16 and 17 year old sons and daughters at this movie. They can discuss the outcome of having sex and the affect is has on all parties.  These children so desperately want to act like adults, so they should be given both sides of the story.  The term “getting an abortion” is so easily used in conversation; it’s like saying “I’m going out for coffee.”  It has no personal resonance because the physical and emotional effects are never really discussed.    

I understand that many believe life starts at conception.  And as a logical human being I also understand that there are unwanted pregnancies, the pill and protection don’t always work and there will always be that “heat of the moment” thing. But… should having sex be given a higher importance in society than taking a life? 

This was a very hard movie to watch and even harder to think about afterwards. Perhaps we all need to be a little uncomfortable…

Grateful for you,

Sheree