December 14, 2004
Greeting Cards
I sure want more than "greetings" from the people I really care about! And I want to connect with them more than I can with a hasty signature at the bottom of a card. The waste of exchanging holiday cards bothers me, but it is the one time of year that we reach out to a lot of people who aren't a regular part of our lives, and that's a good thing.
This year, as my live changes in the course of starting a new publishing business, I have a yen for paper and pen and the time to remember just why I'm staying in touch . . . time to tell certain special people that I care, and catch them up a little on what's really going on in my life.
Here's my plan for the hectic holidays of 2004: I'm going to write real letters to a dozen distant friends, old-fashioned letters with an enclosure or two, an article they might enjoy, or a copy of an old photo. Then I'm going to email another dozen people I've lost touch with. This is going to be my season of renewing connections, and for that I don't need a box of greeting cards.
(By the way, aren't e-greeting cards the worst idea ever?)
Posted by Karen Christensen at 06:47 AM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2004
Witches' Knickers
I've been in Florida visiting my father-in-law. It's a good thing to get a look at what's Green (or not) in another part of the United States (Florida's an interesting case, too: a "red" state with a large "blue" population, at least in winter). I saw a "Pesticide-Free Park" sign, which I've never come across before, and a huge "Organic" sign in the supermarket. It was a wooden sign (or wood look-alike rustic) and hung at the front of the store above an alcove of packaged foods. We saw it only after checking out! (Talk about a half-hearted effort by Publix.)
And the checkout people wanted to pack every single item in a separate plastic bag. I know that paper bags aren't a benign choice, but hadn't realized just what a global problem plastic carrier bags had become till I read an article in New Scientist called "Battle of the bag" (11 September 2004) which explained that the mobility of plastic bags makes them far more dangerous than they might otherwise be. They're called "'witches' knickers' in Ireland, 'white pollution' in China." Estimates are that we use 150 bags per person each year - a million a minute!
It's a surprisingly hard habit to kick, I find, as I endlessly remind my husband to take bags with him to the supermarket. But it's easy to say 'no' to them, as I did even at the airport on the way home yesterday.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 05:38 AM | Comments (0)