Health & Fitness
Shades of Green
What shade of green are you? Was Kermit right? Green living is a process and there is no perfect shade of green.
“It’s not easy being green” Kermit the frog once sang.
Perhaps it’s something that may have crossed your mind as you took out the compost, gathered the recycling, or repaired something instead of tossing it in the trash.
The idea of being green, or sustainable, seems very hard indeed to a lot of people. It seems unattainable, as though some form of perfectly green were out there. As my friend, Ken Kisner said, “There is no such thing as being green. It is all "Shades of Green". One must strive to be greener everyday by reducing their impact on natural resources.”
I’ve been pondering this idea since he said it back in January. The whole idea of shades of green, baby steps as it were, seems so much easier than suddenly attaining some fancy new coat of green.
Living green is something I’ve been doing long before it was called that. A flower baby from the sixties, a back to the land teenager in the 70s and a communal living hippie in the 80s (when that sort of thing was definitely not hip!) and a young mom in the 90s with a dream of raising eco-friendly kids and now a proud member of the board of Sustainable Lafayette.
For me the challenge has been to not be preachy--people really turn off when you nag or judge them. I have tried instead, just living as an example, rather than getting on some high horse about how my life is so much better. It’s not always better, in fact, and it’s certainly not easier. But it is often cheaper.
My deep Scottish roots have made me rather tight fisted with my coins. I’ll look for the cheapest way to buy things, which fortunately for me, often ends up to be the most eco-friendly. Those two things are often very closely tied. It’s far less expensive to save things, fix things, not buy things or buy used things than it is to go out and spend money, which rankles my Scottish bones anyhow.
I strive for a deeper richer shade of green everyday. I’m far, very far, from perfect. I look around every time I’m doing something I know isn’t green at all, hoping I won’t see someone I know. I don’t want someone actually seeing me buy a Slurpee at 7-11 or rip open a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos...clearly not green activities. I find the greener I get the more I think about each action and actually consider whether or not it’s green. Most things I do are, but some...well, I really am human after all.