Much more than what's here

I’m taking a break with a hot cup of earl grey tea and an oatmeal cookie with raisins…yum my favorite. Despite the muggy day outside, the office is ice cold. Brrr.

The last couple of days, in thinking about my novel, I’ve been thinking about how limited our resources really are. You see, I’ve been trying to imagine a world were oil has been used up. No more oil. What would that look like? We would not be able to produce any more cars, have any gas to run cars, have fuel for the large machinery that filters our water but what about the day to day products. No more new plastic products. No more lotions, hair product, the containers that contain them. At least nothing new would be able to be produced. What we will have to contend with is the tons of waste that we have thrown away. I wonder if we would learn then to actually re-use those containers that we throw out without much thought.

It’s odd, this shifting perspective to imagine how the world would look like. No fuel for trucks would mean, no one carting away our walls of garbage. Where would it go? The few times the garbage companies went on strike in our lifetime, the smell of a week’s worth of garbage piled high along the sidewalks come to mind. Aren’t other countries now dealing with such a dilemma? There is much more in my head than what I’m actually writing out.

There would be no more jobs…not the kind where you bring home a paycheck. And once the mobs and scavengers have snatched up as many supplies as they can, then what? How do people survive? In a city setting, where are food sources going to come from? A little plot garden? Not sure that would sustain the masses. Would people stay in cities…or would they leave out into the suburbs where they can raise goats and chickens and lots of veggies. It does my head in to start thinking this way. I sometimes think that I will see this in my lifetime. Eek scary.

Anyway, my sister laughs at me when I want to save glass jars. They make a good place to store dry goods once they’ve been cleaned and dried thoroughly. Why throw them away? I think she worries that I am turning into a hoarder. I’m not hoarding…I’m conscious of the impact of our garbage lately. This is not to say that I’m perfect about this, in fact it’s a work in progress…but I grew up in the 70’s and I remember when we used wax paper and brown paper bags for our lunches instead of plastic cling and plastic bags. I remember real efforts to curb waste. I think the lessons sunk in deep and now I’m thinking about the future generations. How will they fare?

So for my very small part, I’m going to start giving up products. No more make-up, no more cosmetics (I will allow myself eye-liner ‘cause a girl needs something), no crazy skin cleansing products. I’m sticking to environmentally-friendly soap and witch hazel. No more hair products once I finish my hair gel. No more dying my hair. I’m going to go back to a natural dark brown color with a little grey instead of the red-tint that I seem to live on. I’d really like to give up deodorant but I’m sure my family, friends and office mates will complain very loudly. I’m just thinking about all the chemicals in just these basic products as well as the containers they come in. Ergh. I know my small contribution is like a drop in the ocean but so be it. I’m keeping it simple.

Peace and hair grease,

L~



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