Tag: recycling

Silly Things that Bother Me

Ok. I promise this is not a whine fest. Just silliness. Stay with me here. 

Several times a week, as in more than five times, I drive down i75 heading towards Knoxville. When you are coming down i75, and you pass the Merchant’s exit and you look ahead, there is a little pass through the hills and in between these hills you see a big mountain looming.

 Then you keep driving and when you get through the little pass, “POOF!” the mountain is gone!

Now, I have figured out that this mountain is actually way beyond Knoxville. I just want to know why on earth it looks so close when I am right at that spot on the highway. Why??? This bothers me. 

The other day I was also driving down a road in Knoxville that I had been on countless times. Suddenly, I noticed a really cool building. Wow! Look at that! Is that new? As I craned my neck to see it, I could tell that this building had been there a long time. Not new. Why have I never noticed this building before? Why am I so unobservant??? This also bothers me. 

At Walmart they have all the face masks in big bins on the walkway that leads you out of the store. You don’t pass these bins until you have gone through a checkout line and are heading towards the door. Every time I pass these bins I think, Oh shoot, we could do with some more masks. And then I think, I’ve already gone through the line, there is no way I’m going to do that again right now. And I leave, without masks. Why on earth has Walmart put the masks in such an inconvenient place??? Also a bothering thing. 

I have a linen shelf in our upstairs hallway. Every day I find a pile of blankets, sheets, and pillowcases on the floor. Every day. Why? Which child/children has decided that this needs to be part of their daily routine? Do they have a mental checklist, Eat, Play, Sleep, Pull things off the linen shelf?? Very Bothersome. 

If a ceiling fan is on all the time, how does it get dusty? How come starting a fire in the woodstove is so hard? I thought wood and paper and cardboard were flammable? How come cereal bags are so hard to open? 

Every two weeks the city comes and picks up our recycling that we put out by the road. Why is it so hard to remember which week they are coming? Every week I’m standing on the sidewalk looking down the road to see if my neighbors have put their recycling bins out. And sometimes, they put their bins out, so I copy them, and then, THEY WERE WRONG!  And we all look foolish. 

Bother, Bother, Bother. 

These, of course, fall under “First World Problems” that are really not problems at all. But they are bothersome. I’m sure you’ve got your own list of bothers too. 🙂

Leave No Trace

In the Bible in the book of Revelation, there is mentioned this 1000 years of time when Jesus will rule on the earth. I am not a theologian or a scholar. I have heard some good teaching on Revelation, but the best teachers all freely admit that there is no way of knowing what everything means. The important thing is that Jesus is coming back. 

 

So, every once in a while I think about that 1000 years. Lets just say, for the sake of my idea, that Jesus was literally going to come to earth and rule the earth for 1000 years? What would that be like? What would he do? 

 

I have a theory. Here it is. I bet he would spend that 1000 years having all the people work on cleaning up the mess they made of the earth. 1000 years to go and gather all the trash out of the ocean. 1000 years to clean up all the toxins and chemicals that have been spread all over the ground and water. 1000 years to eliminate from our environment all the cheap substances we’ve come up with that are causing cancer and killing off the insects and other animals. 

 

It seems like a worthy way to spend the time. 

 

This past week there have been demonstrations around the world where people are demanding changes be made to fight climate change. 

 

I know that some people don’t believe in climate change. And you have a lot of evidence to back up your beliefs. I get that. But, even if you don’t think the climate is changing, or you think the present climate change is simply happening because of other natural reasons…Can you not at least acknowledge that the current way we are doing things is hurting our planet? Even if the climate isn’t changing, our oceans sure are filling up with plastic trash. The amount of garbage and trash that the United States is producing is crazy. The chemicals that the Big Food Industry are pouring on the ground is killing off our insects and especially the bees. Whether the carbon emissions are causing the weather to change or not, they certainly are causing air pollution. 

 

We can not continue as we are without reaping heavy consequences. We already are reaping heavy consequences, we’re just not paying attention.

 

I am as guilty as the next person. 

 

Convenience is a big part of it. It’s not convenient to take my own bags to the grocery store. It’s not convenient to take stuff to the recycling center. 

 

Cost is another big part. I am trying to raise a large family with a limited amount of money and buying the “responsibly packaged” organic food at the store is simply not in my budget. Like, not even anywhere close to being in my budget. 

 

But, there are definitely things I can do. I can recycle. Our city actually makes it pretty easy. I can take my own bags to the grocery store. I can be careful about not putting poisons all over my yard that are hurting the insects and bees. And probably the biggest thing, I can talk to my children about it. Instill a desire in them to treat our earth carefully. Instill in them the habit of recycling. Start making them aware of problems in our earth that need to be addressed. 

 

It is my hope that our current culture of “Do whatever you want as long as it makes you money” can be replaced with the camping mantra my husband has taught us when we go camping…Leave no trace. Leave nature as it was or better so that the next person who comes along can enjoy it too.