78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



what a bunch of hippies
2006-12-09   12:02 p.m.

Last night at the ShopRite, I got eyed a bit suspiciously - maybe she's foreign, I think they were thinking.

I asked if they carried Hummus, something I think by now every one eats or knows or knows someone who eats. But not in rural, "remote" Sussex co, I guess. I stopped by said ShopRite cause I happened to be further north, on my way home from checking out xmas trees, and soon realized the difference 10 miles can make. MY ShopRite ("My"=the one closer to our new house) carries Hummus, Feta - even veggie burgers and aluminum-free deodorant and organic shampoo! MY ShopRite is ten miles closer - to what, I can't really explain. Reality? Civilization? New York City? Newark? Rockaway? Just ten miles closer.

I was buying Hummus to have some offerings for an impromptu gathering of a few friends at our home yesterday. It was mostly the crew who helped us move (minus Andrew), but a few hadn't yet seen the house. I was really happy to show it, and my poor friends suffered through the tour - even of the outside deck, porch, Japanese Maple and Tulip row, though it was freezing outside (literally! frosty lawn and car windows). How sweet. Myke and Paula brought us a mini xmas tree, so now it's very cheery in here.

While I was trying to find anything remotely close to what we eat in the white-bread-and-iceberg-lettuce ShopRite (well, they DID have Soy Milk - I almost fainted with excitement when I saw that), Steve was having a Frasier moment next door at the ShopRite Wine and Liquors. When I walked in, I heard him say "Do you have anything besides Yellowtail Merlot?" And I pretty much immediately walked out. Cause we're snobs when it comes to wine. And coffee. And hummus Biiig snobs.

But then it all reminds me how spoiled we are. Just a few years ago I was floating through a stripped-bare supermarket in Maun, Botswana, happy to find peanut butter, yogurt and regular tea (not a big fan of Rooibos, the tea of choice all over southern Africa). And the only reason I could find such items is because we were in "the big city" of Maun. 10 miles north of there? No yogurt. No peanut butter. No supermarket! Maybe some tea, if you're lucky. As I was winding through those aisles, looking for something bread- or cracker-like ('twas cold, needed carbs) I played the "I want..." game with my self ("I want...chicken teriyaki! I want...chorizo! I want...mocha chip ice cream!), as I often do in third world countries when I'm darn sick of rice and boiled chicken for dinner. But I had a moment with myself: The fact that we can all get those things pretty much whenever we want, that get angry when we can not find those things with ease, is underlying some of biggest disasters in this country - our spoiled behavior, our weight and health problems, our sense of entitlement, our environmental problems; the list is pretty endless.

If we ate what was local, and seasonal, we'd need less gas to transport stuff. We'd use less plastic to ship it. We'd draw more heavily on smaller businesses and agricultural industries, chipping away on the mega-monopolies that are Dole and Tropicana. We could put the squeeze on local industry to have high standards and phase out toxic pesticides or GMOs, and might have more of a hand in regulating harvesting practices so they're more sustainable and less destructive.

So does this mean I can give up Feta? I dunno. Should I buy a goat? Make my own cheese? Maybe not. But what to do with this guilt over the excess I live immersed in? Maybe refrain from buying into the excess so whole-heartedly, especially around this time of year.

My sister-in-law proposed that we start implementing a no-gift policy for holidays, or better yet, chip in to give to Heifer International or some other extremely reputable charity. Better to buy a cow for some needy family in Guatemala than to buy a bunch of candles and spoon rests for each other year after year. I'd rather have a big party with lots of yummy food - yes, maybe even Feta - than to have more stuff to push around, and I bet most would agree. Gifts are great, thoughtful, nice, and sweet...but maybe better given on birthdays, housewarmings, or weddings. No?

Who knows. It's easy to be so idealistic on a Saturday morning in the new happy country house. We'll see - my SIL and I are going to bring it up together to everyone this year and see what the reaction might be. I think it will be well-received; we've all been in gift-card/food gifts/plant gifts mode in the last few years anyway.

I'm off to the store now (book, not food!). I'm looking for information on natural cleaning alternatives. Part of the reason is that it's high time (who wants to keep inhaling asthma-inducing/carcinogenic chemicals every time they scrub the mold off their shower door?), and part of it is our paranoia over how to treat our new septic/well systems. Too many chemicals down the drain, and the septic stops working the way it should - bleach, for example, will kill the natural bacteria that breaks down toilet paper, etc.
Companies like Seventh Generation are great for some bathroom sprays, laundry detergent, etc., but who can afford $5 a pop? I'd like to make my own. We're such hippies.

(PS - I started here: http://www.eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm)

xox