(This is my mom’s college graduation photo, which was taken when she was approximately 50 years old and had raised five children. She had also graduated from high school just a few years earlier.)
Our generation is pretty self-righteous about “saving” the environment. Some seem to think this generation invented conservation and environmental consciousness and that environmental heathens are ruining everything. I have a slightly different opinion about that. In the words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and it is us!”
Since the beginning of time everything in our known environment has been evolving, and some of the earth’s characteristics and inhabitants haven’t and won’t survive, probably including us. Which brings me back to mom’s #57, “Turn the lights off when you leave a room. It saves electricity and helps keep the house cooler.”
I suspect that mom had a tiny carbon footprint, as she was religious about recycling and conserving even up till the day she made the ultimate sacrifice and stopped breathing oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. Somewhere along the way I guess I adopted #57 from mom. I am constantly following my hubby around turning off lights, TV’s, radios and anything else that sucks electricity. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not really a very dedicated environmentalist. I just think that we don’t give much credit to the good land stewards and conservationists that have been around for a very long time, like my mom. We didn’t invent this stuff; we’re just looking down the throat of a disaster that has been creeping up on us for a very long time, and now we’re scrambling. This is a good thing. Click on Read More Below...
Truth-be-told, my turning all the lights off is probably more about the house-cooler thing than the save-electricity thing. I am always hot. No, it’s not menopause. I’ve always been hot. I won’t die slowly of cancer or peacefully in my sleep. I’ll spontaneously combust. Some day my poor hubby will come home to find just my scorched and smoldering chair and slightly melted laptop.
So mom was right, turn off the lights when you leave a room, save electricity, stay cool and evolve.
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You are so right ---alot of the old country folks around here are the "original" environmentalist (their hair would curl if they knew they were being called an enviromentalist--you know--bad taste in their mouth from the Devils's River minnow debaucle) We picked up trash in the 50's when it wasn't the in thing--beer cans along the dirt road at the ranch that people threw out,, we washed tin foil and we used bread bags for plastic sacks, we picked up broken glass out of Live Oak, we recycled all butter dishes and old mayo jars, ah, the list goes on and on. And yes we turned out the lights because Daddy wasn't made of money and no one had a money tree(do you remember that one) I also find myself going through the girls house turning off lights and wonder when I turned into my mother! Hope your Thanksgiving was good! Luv ya dear friend. Linda Sue
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