Breaking the Disposable Habit

While our new President works on getting the economy back in a good place, the rest of us can work on turning ourselves green. Or so the story goes. Going Green is the new mantra of the socially responsible and not nearly as easy as some would have us believe.

For example, this site gives us 10 disposable things we never have to buy again. Among those things are bottled water, disposable diapers, paper towels, wrapping paper and air filters. Great! But every non-disposable has its downside.

Cloth diapers are a mess! No other way to put it. And they stink. The wet-only diapers can go straight to the diaper pail. It is the wet-plus diapers that require rinsing out in the toilet, wringing out excess water and extreme hand washing afterwards.

Paper towels are another mess saver these helpful people would like us to give up. Cloth tea towels work just as well if not better than paper towels, that much is true. But what to do about zotting pre-cooked breakfast bacon? Cloth napkins soaked in bacon grease – yuck! I tried to get Michal Anne to join me in vegetarianism. No luck.

Then the bottled water thing. Absolutely right! We do need to get off bottled water. So how do we deal with the disaster preparedness thing? A gallon of water a day is recommended for every household member with enough stored water for 3 days. I personally think 7 days is better but no one asked so I don’t tell. Then the other little dirty secret is that bottled water has an expiration date! Yes, who knew water could go bad? So I buy bottled water for disaster preparedness and then have to drink it before it goes bad and then replace it with new bottled water. The problem is pretty unsolvable.

Permanent air filters – works for me. Non-paper wrapping paper – good idea - sometimes. But what about all the cities and states that do not recycle? Having just been to Spartanburg, South Carolina, I can testify that they do not recycle. We threw away too many recyclables for me to feel comfortable buying even one bottle of water.

Recycling is a good idea – a planet saving idea. It has a few glitches and a few holdouts. Maybe we could go to work on those. Anyone with any ideas let us know! And if you know of a city, state, town or county without recycling let us know and we will post their names on the Wall of Shame.

Melanie Heatherly Rekers

This month has been one of “those” months. The kind you never want to live again. The kind that turns your world upside down in moments.

On the 29th of January my sister-in-law, Melanie, died. She was lovely in every way: a true Southern lady; a “Child of the South” my brother called her; a woman who cherished her family, her children and her friends. She was generous and kind and gave of what she had to anyone in need. Only sixteen days passed between the diagnosis of a brain tumor and her death.

She left three children and her husband, my brother, wondering how they would carry on with their lives; her mother, sister and brother equally lost in grief. She also left a network of friends: neighborhood women who raised their children while she raised hers; women who played together, volunteered together and solved problems together while their husbands worked and traveled for business; women who formed a close knit and solid group of support and care for each other. In Melanie’s last days those friends fed her family, helped where they could; crying and praying and struggling to understand. Like Melanie’s family, her friends clung together trying to understand the suddenness, the finality of the tragedy. Like her family, they were stunned by the speed at which death took her and struggled with her absence from their lives.

Melanie was one of those people who understood completely that relationships are all of life and everything in life. And she lived that truth out, giving herself generously to husband, children and friends. Melanie will be missed by everyone who came close to her.