Are you into recycling? I imagine that most of us (UMs being Socially Conscious in the Wesley Tradition)do our share. We fill our recycle bins with the right types of plastic, cans and paper. (KC does not take glass.) We make sure our bins are at the curb on the right day.
It seems that more and more people are shunning plastic shopping bags and are carrying reususable ones to do their toting. The women of the MO Conference UMW Mission Team all have hand crafted, one of a kind, recycled tote bags. I hope that they are using them.
But, somebody tell me, where is the corporate world on this recycling thing? Explain this to me. Why are there so many empty shopping malls and empty strip mall buildings? Yet, there are more shopping centers and strip malls being built every day. In my community alone there are 2 huge malls standing empty. And, in the same community there have been built three completely new shopping areas. Just last Spring, a new Lowe's and an Office Depot popped up (like overnight) on a beautiful patch of virgin pasture land.
Is it okay to recycle paper and plastic and not entire buildings? WHAT KIND OF FOOTPRINT IS THAT LEAVING FOR OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN? I cannot see how what we are doing makes sense financially. What makes a 5 year old building unusable? My house is 50 years old, for Pete's sake! And, trust me, it's quite liveable. Cluttered, but liveable. And, speaking of Pete, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is centuries old. Nobody is talking about replacing that one.
So, what's a gal to do? The recycling that I faithfully do doesn't amount to a hill of beans, when compared to the hundreds of unused, unrecycled buildings in this country. We can reuse notebook covers and cut down on paper copies till we are blue in the face and we'll never be able overcome the useless waste of an 40 store, 3 story mall!
Let's stop the madness.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
New Year's Plans
I'm not in the habit of making "New Year's Resolutions". It's not my thing. However, I always have a list of projects that I plan to do as soon as January appears on the calendar.
For my first project of 2009, I plan to create a new Address Book. I'm writing here about the old fashioned paper kind of address book. Believe it or not, I still take time to send a greeting card or write an occassional letter. Now, our old family and friends address book isn't that old, but boy is it a mess!
I need to create a NEW address book because our friends and family are constantly changing phone numbers. People have land phone numbers, or sometimes land and cell phone numbers, then they drop the land phones and go to only cells. Then they switch back. So, I have lots of cross-outs and added munbers. As a kid, my family had the same phone number for years, 3208R!
Then, there is the issue of changing addresses. Our 4 kids have moved 20 times in the last couple of years. I've used up all of the K space in my current book and now half of the L space is filled with Kincaids. And, Scott and I have been at the same address in KC North, for over thirty years.
Lastly, there is the issue of changing spouses and significant others. (We can't be the only family with this issue.) I actually use my address book to remember the names of the people that my kids are currently married to or presently living with.
So, I'm going to enter information into my NEW address book. Put in the right phone numbers, correct addresses and make sure all of the Mr., Mrs. and Ms notations are correct. However, nothing gets in my NEW address book unless it is written with a #2 pencil. I may love all of my noted friends and relatives, but they aren't going to be permanent!!!!
For my first project of 2009, I plan to create a new Address Book. I'm writing here about the old fashioned paper kind of address book. Believe it or not, I still take time to send a greeting card or write an occassional letter. Now, our old family and friends address book isn't that old, but boy is it a mess!
I need to create a NEW address book because our friends and family are constantly changing phone numbers. People have land phone numbers, or sometimes land and cell phone numbers, then they drop the land phones and go to only cells. Then they switch back. So, I have lots of cross-outs and added munbers. As a kid, my family had the same phone number for years, 3208R!
Then, there is the issue of changing addresses. Our 4 kids have moved 20 times in the last couple of years. I've used up all of the K space in my current book and now half of the L space is filled with Kincaids. And, Scott and I have been at the same address in KC North, for over thirty years.
Lastly, there is the issue of changing spouses and significant others. (We can't be the only family with this issue.) I actually use my address book to remember the names of the people that my kids are currently married to or presently living with.
So, I'm going to enter information into my NEW address book. Put in the right phone numbers, correct addresses and make sure all of the Mr., Mrs. and Ms notations are correct. However, nothing gets in my NEW address book unless it is written with a #2 pencil. I may love all of my noted friends and relatives, but they aren't going to be permanent!!!!
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