This morning I had a hard talk with my roommates. I’ve noticed over the past weeks that the lights are often left on when no one is home, and that the heat is turned up really high even if it’s not cold outside. I told them that I think we should try to change our habits to reduce our collective energy use, by turning off all lights when we aren’t using them, and grabbing a jacket instead of turning the heat all the way up. I hoped that they would understand why I was concerned about this, and that they would share my desire to have a more eco-friendly home. I was also hoping that we could come up with some strategies together that would help all of us remember to turn off the lights. They were very receptive to my idea. While they did note that it’s harder to remember when you’re running late, we decided we could try to put signs around the house to remind us to check the lights before we leave, even if we’re running late. We also decided we could put our heat on a schedule, so no one needs to turn it up really high. Overall I love my roommates and I’m glad they were open to hearing my values.
Very well said.....and generally a very good practice!
However, please forgive me - for seeming to be contrary, but.. also looking at your posted photo.....
I began to wonder...
Are there some rare or exceptional reasons to occasionally break this rule? Even if it costs more to leave the lights on, it might deter theft, it might heat the house ambiently and be cheaper than forced air heating, it might be a (right or wrong?) signal that someone is home to passersby or visitors, it might make someone feel welcome when they come home to their own, it might have aesthetic value? It might offset the gloom and dark of a very very long winter.....it might make someone feel safe to walk through the neighbourhood at nights, or is it a festival of lights season?
If none of these are reasons or concerns, then by all means, PLEASE DO turn your lights down low!
And remember that, sometimes, there IS compassion behind "the madness"
A chief example is: those darned plastic spin-off caps on juice, milk, milk alternatives, coffee creamer, molasses, etc - the thing is: no four year old can easily pull off the trick to removing the plastic pull seals! Only a grown up can do that!
Hint: hurried children and hurried parents; families where both parents are "bread winners"; "dual income" households; single moms, abandoned dads, children working to survive. Who has time to show a 5 year old how to open the spout or "bec" of a traditional plastic free TetraPak paper milk carton with the "gable top"? Who has time to be at home when the children are well beyond OM's milk? How long is pregnancy, parental, and personal leave in the USA and Canada now? Is there even such a thing for "cooleys" back in China or cobalt and sulfur gatherers? If some of us are unemployed and have been searching, why are some of us so severely overworked? Why can't husband and wife teams balance their life-home-work responsibilities through JOB SHARING and TEAM TEACHING? So what if you have different values, priorities, and views? Is that really grounds for divorce? The children can learn to balance different ways and different views - we have different ways of learning from both parents, ideally - understanding and working through our BIG diferences can be an exercise in both social growth, social awareness, and conflict resolution development! And we have an opportunity to learn what give and take and compromise means in "the real world".
Teaching and communication skills? People skills?
Organizational Behaviour? Herd mentality? The social cost of Choosing to Be Different? The personal cost of not speaking and not choosing to respond from a genuine place?
Social strategies for raising children have suffered in my generation since both parents started both working and both struggling to pay for the house utilities and services and food and care items;
Or was it systemic racism?
What do vital statistics agencies say about the documented increase in divorce rates?
What do Gen X and Gen Y say about it?
What is Gen Now doing?
Back to the "conveniences of technology"
Rice Cookers to InstantPot: Who has time to watch a cook pot full of rice when the main entree is still in progress, along with all the other fixings? Just ask Mom, the MultiTAsker! Look at Mom! She is tending the fields while her baby is on her back! Or baby is wrapped around her middle while she picks and carries firewood on her back and fetches water balancing it on her head. Please! Be helpful to Mom! Ask her what you can do to help!
Interesting title: "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" by Walter Rodney - has anyone read this? If so, please do give a synopsis!
Hint: hurried children and hurried parents; children help pick up the slack at home by learning to help in the meal prep while Mom and Dad are at work! The NEED to make money has also earned us these other "child-friendly" kitchen appliances, amazing inventions on one hand, but poor in nutrients and proteins convenience foods on the other, such as:
Grilled Cheese Sandwich Maker: Just store-bought bread and processed cheese slices; don't begrudge our buying real cheese only because it's "too expensive"!
Microwave Ovens: the only way to cook potatoes for a family of four in 11 minutes! Apple Betty for four in 11 minutes! And cabbage rolls for four in, oh, I forgot - maybe just under 60 minutes?
InstantPot: This one isn't too bad; but I already have a tried and true slowcooker and ricecooker and not enough kitchen counter space;
PopTarts: Candy Coated Cookie with Sprinkles and Simulated Fruit Filling - all in one! Have toaster, will pop up!
KD: cheesiness when you crave carbs, fat, and salt - actually needs parental guidance, at first, unless you can read by age 8
Instant Ramen Noodles: hot slurpy salty comfort food in less than 10 minutes on HIGH heat
Yakult: A healthy choice, and lovingly bottled in individual plastic bottle portions so a 3 year old can help themselves to a portion without wasting any - provided it is reachable by a child at a height of 2.5' - most likely to be found in the produce drawer! Assuming you have the luxury of a working fridge, in the first place!
Velcro Shoes: Do we really need laces anymore? Laces are more sustainable for grown ups who have already learned their "bunny ears" method for tying shoelaces and have a fairly consistent shoe size
"Cranky" Shoes by NB (someone would write a book about how cranky a child's shoes can become!): Look, Ma! No laces! No velcro that gets matted in the washing machine with balled up dryer lint after several washes..... In fact, it's actually fun as a toy! No kidding!
Are these conveniences supposed to replace the arms of loving parents or guardians?
A former bf once revealed this observation (and the ensuing terrible dark discovery about social hierarchy and how we run ourselves ragged serving others just trying to survive): Welfare Wednesday? Oh, Pop Tarts are on sale! Same with pop! Same with my favourite sugar coated "cereal" and licorice and twizzlers - PLEASE! These are not foods! They're CANDY! And why do they go on sale at the grocery store every welfare wednesday?
The good groceries, he observed, like lean meats and fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grain products, went on sale in the last week before welfare wednesday....sad realization he had made and revealed to me in 1998.
Survival of the fittest? Let's say, survival of the richest, in many cases as we had known it in the past and into the present - but does it always have to be this way? Some of us take it much for granted.
So, who really wants to "feed the world and make it a better place"?
Let's hope that the original ideal behind mass manufacturing and high speed mechanized food processing and packaging practices will manifest in actually making (sorting our recycling) lives easier (meaning, unhurrriedly and simply) and quality food more plentiful by lowering the overall cost per unit and easing the drudgery of our lives? What is ACTUALLY worthy of "sustainable mass manufacturing" these days? - from an Ecological Health and Human Health Biodiversity Health Protection Point of View?
What about customization and custom tailoring? It was originally intended for those born with "special differences"; currently it is sponsored by the "whims of the rich and famous" because, after all, "where will the money come from?" The Media Marketing and Advertising Industry? Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? Who actually has time to drive 12 Rolls Royces? LOL! Unless it's for the wife and all 10 teenagers.....
Colin R Turner started thinking outside of the money equation: by his deduction, it came down to this: Who is gonna clean our public toilets? Who is going to take out the garbage and compost and recycling? Who is going to clean up the trash? Who is going to engineer and tend to our waste to energy systems? Who is going to teach their child how to potty? And how do you open that gable-top milk carton (the one that has no plastic spin-off cap) for your children? There is compassion in the ones that have plastic caps designed to be operated by grown toddlers verging on early childhood - presuming Mom or Dad or Gramps or Granny did the hard part of removing the plastic pull tabs?!?
Of course, Love and GRACIOUS Consideration, Devotion, and Dedication HAS DONE/TRIED TO DO/ DID THIS!
So, count your lucky stars: Our Sanitation and Janitorial Workers take care of our aesthetic and important hygiene needs; so let's not look down on them as "uneducated broomstick pushers"or "cooleys" but rather, the essential workers that they are for our comfort, safety, and health - including Construction Workers and other General Labourers.
Why can't we treat garbage truckers and the likes of janitorial cleaners who handle refuse and recyclers in real activated kindness and build hot showers conveniently situated near the workplaces (like the landfill, or close to the recycling sorters) with some of the methane gas recapture for hot water? This way, they can return home in their private or personal vehicles without risking contamination or smelling like absolute refuse - or better yet, they may actually be able to opt into pleasantly supporting the public transportation systems because they won't "stink"
What does it take? Does capitalism actually solve problems? Or do other ways and means actually signify or mean something else, something more, something different?