meghan
Mattawan, MI
At 27 years old I never thought I would sound like my father. You know, the old I had to walk 10 miles to school, up hill both ways, in a blizzard. But here I find myself longing for the days when my rural part of Michigan had snow. I dont mean like this last year when we had just enough snow to call it a white Christmas and then not much after that. We only had our drive plowed a hand full of time as apposed to the almost every day cleaning my parents drive got when we were kids. Sledding was not something that you drove to some sledding and ski resort to do, but something you did every day after school and twice a day on weekends and winter break. We had a pretty flat yard so the most fun we had most days was from the ditch in the front yard our the snow mound Uncle Charlie left from plowing the drive. Some days we would get lucky and dad would go to Grandmas house, there were good hills around her house. I can remember when we had a huge Ice storm and the power was out for a week. Yah I can remember when.
My basic belief that the earth is only ours to barrow started very young, though I do not recall any major influence. In fifth grade I wrote an article for a class project about how recycling could save our planet. Now at 27 I am realizing more and more how wasteful a society we live in. When I heard the advertisement for this contest I was thrilled. For a few months we had been taking at home about going a little greener. Up until then I had lost all hope of being able to anything to save our beautiful mother earth. I felt that I had no voice, being a lower middle class mother of 2 young boys, who would listen to me. But that is the very reason that I must do something. And even if people arent listening, there watching. That is human nature; watch to see what others are doing. Well watch me world!! I have 2 small boys that I will not let grow up believing that a homemade dinner comes from a can or box. That everything you want or need can be bought at the local store.
Our family has made a commitment to follow the 3 Rs that I learned so long ago. And I know that there is a lot that we can do just in reusing things. But here lies my frustration. I have to pay for recycling services in our area. Not much for sure but enough that at our income it would be a frivolous expense. Why when I am tiring to do something good, something to benefit mankind not just myself, I am met be a high consumer road block. When I want to by organic food I must pay more if I can even find it in my area. If I needed to replace the water heater in my home, I would not have the money to buy an eco friendly in-line water heater. For us it sometimes feel that living economically and ecologically is not possible.
Yet we march on. Next year our garden will go in and we grow our own produce. I will can and freeze fruits and vegetables for our family. We have committed to cutting down the number of wasteful trips to town that burns fuel. We plan our trips and make sure we get everything we need so not to have to return. Teaching my children to turn the lights off when they are leaving a room. These are some of the things that we can do that are economic and ecological. Both of which I want my boys to learn are not options in life but necessities. I do not believe that it is a chose to be either but the mainframe of a good and prosperous way of life. I want them to understand that true wealth is not measured in the amount of money you have or the car that you drive, but in the human bonds that you create in life and in the lessons that you teach to empower others.
In hearing of this contest I was reminded of all the things that I believed in when I wrote that paper for school. And I also realized how much I had let our materialist, wasteful soicoty change me. I now see that every person can and should make a difference. That we have been granted the beautiful gift of living on this amazing planet. We have a responsibility to care for it for the next generations. If we do not teach the how they will be ill equipped to deal with unhealthy legacy we are leaving them.