Environmental Consciousness

One might think that because I worked as an environmental chemist that I was a diehard proponent of natural substrates and recycling and energy conservation.

But the truth of the matter is that I buy big black garbage bags to hide miscellaneous bottles, cans, and newspapers from time to time in my refuge. I also tip the sanitation workers handsomely at holiday time with the hope that my secret will not be divulged.

I am just not that fastidious about being green.

Last December, in doing an inventory of the outdoor lights I realized that we needed a new supply. So my husband kindly volunteered to purchase new white mini lights at Home Depot. And when he came home he promptly hung them around my round top front door along with some  pine rope—a look I relish every year.

But when he called me outside to view the traditional outdoor décor I was speechless. The lights were blue—they were hideous. So I inquired why did you buy blue lights? And he told me that he did not. I snapped Let me see the box.

The box said Martha Stewart clear LED lights. They were energy efficient.

I did not care. They were ugly.

So I made him pull them down.

And while there is a part of my brain that understands that being environmentally conscious is the right thing to do, in this life there is always something about ourselves that we prefer to be bad-ass about. My vice is not being all that ecologically conscious.

But it could be worse. If I kept those LED lights it would be visual pollution. And maintaining my neighborly environment is my way of being green.