The GREEN Movement and the Good Old Days

Here is an email/facebook status I found that rings true. Anyone around the age of 35 or older will remember the 'Good Old Days', when being 'Green' wasn't a movement but a way of life.  Instead of today's society that generally doesn't care about where things come from or where they go - leading to the excesses, consumption and waste of modern life. 

If you're old enough to remember life as it was  described below, what changed for you?
Is it time to start caring again?

Bobby

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Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

I apologised and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right - our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So, they really were recycled ... but we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right ...we didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right ... we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the country of Wales. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working, so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right ... we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were, just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Happy New Year - Your Time is what You Make It!

As midnight struck last night, people rung in the New Year with hopes of a brighter future.  Having waited for 2011 to pass and 2012 to finally arrive.  The tribal partying and celebrating shows the roots of mankind.

Yet it is just another day. Not to make New Year mean any less but to allow you to understand that every single day that the sun rises is the start of a New Day for you.  You didn't have to wait to make resolutions and changes in your life - but if you have chosen to do that for New Year, then stick with them , as you may not allow yourself the opportunity to change every day, which you can choose to do whenever you want.

Cultures used to thank the past day for what it had brought and celebrate the awakening of each day with the same optimism of a brighter future.  It may not have been at midnight but more likely as the sun came up (they didn't even have backlit Casio watches back then to tell the exact time, how did they survive!?)


As the wave of the 'sun rise' travels around the world, as opposed to thinking of the world spinning on it's axis as it really does, a wave of people wake up to the start of the New Year based on The Gregorian Calendar (invented in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII). This Catholic Calendar was adopted by most of Europe that year and in 1752 by Great Britain and it's possessions.

As the whole World wakes up the New Year on Sunday 1st January 2012, the wave having passed all the way round by Sunday 11am, it is already Monday 2nd Jan 2012 in Samoa who chose to jump ahead a day because the Calendar didn't suit them. New Year’s Day came early in Samoa after the tiny South Pacific nation cut Friday, December 30, from its 2011 calendar so it can catch up with Asia, New Zealand and Australia instead of lagging behind with the USA.
http://www.timeanddate.com
http://www.firstpost.com


Our planet does not pay attention to the Calendar, it actually dictates it. Seasons drift, days change and it probably annoys those that like control (yes the whole World does not always revolve around you).
Although there are no loose or spare parts in any system, as Hugo Cabret said:
"I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason." Hugo


Days, weeks, months and years aren't lost - just added to your life and experience, then returned to the universal pot that everyone shares.
Your life, your calendar, starts the day that you are born and you can choose how long you measure your time periods in.  Measure it the way that it suits you and do things in the time that is needed to accomplish your goals. The only 'race' is with yourself and it's not even a race, just the gentle passing of now, through change and to where you will be later.


Make the best of YOUR time and you can choose to do everything better this year, starting Today. Enjoy 2012 and make it what you want it to be… your new creation starts now!

All the Best and more for your present in the future.


"Remember time is finite when measured and infinite when it is not." - Bobby Gill