I am selfish

Emme yesterday asked what green meant to us. I answered that when I hear the word green that I picture my mother in the 1960, and not myself out in the fields. Yes, I also said that the word was a fad, a buzz word, yet somewhere in my statement I wasn't as clear as I could be about what I thought the word meant.

To be green, is to be a frog in a swamp. At least I sing a song by a certain frog when I hear the word.

In the past green meant someone that was consciously purchasing and watching their footprints. Not just vegans, or mud hut people. Green always felt like a generic term, and now has became oh so more. Now it means that you can shop anywhere and find that one must have "green" item. Be it labeled natural, evo friendly or what ever term you are looking for that would qualify it in your mind that it is "green". psst the Jones just bought a solar powered hot tub, we have to have a bigger one now.

With all the hubbub about politicians and actors going "green" the general public has begun to lose sight about what this movement is really suppose to be about. Fixing and saving.

I am not "green" by any definition. I am selfish. Whatever "green" you may see on these pages is a byproduct of my main goal. As I told Emme, I refer to myself as salt. So if you have come to my blog in search of how to greenify your life, in an easy way, it would be best if you moved on.

I am not a vegan, I raise and butcher my own meat. I have plans to use animals of burden. I tear up the land to plant my crops. I have made statements that consumerism is a good thing, but did qualify it by saying that you needed to make knowledgeable purchases.

I am selfish. I seed save. I am looking into grey water and solar power. I want to live off the grid, for more reasons than the electric companies have it in for the environment.

I drive a big truck. I have tried hauling hay and feed, animals and farm equipment in the hatch back of a small car. It doesn't work.

I started my garden out of selfishness, to feed us when we were down on our luck. The garden grew larger, and I discovered my true selfishness, I enjoyed it and it was all mine.

We do many thing by hand, we are determined to know that we can do these things, and that if something should ever happen, we can survive just a tad longer than some of the others. I want to prove to myself that I am not lazy, or soft. I work the land, mindful of it, because we need the soil to stay healthy year after year. I care for my animals, for I need then to stay healthy year after year. I care for my family for the same reason.

I am not green, I only appear that way to the outside world. I keep my immediate environment healthy because I am selfish.

Soon this green fad will fade, just like the recycling craze of the 1980's. Along with it, all the small lessons that the posers learned. If you buy into the fad, you gain relatively little. It will take a person's mind set to change. But as long as the Jones' have the better "green" items, I don't think that change will come. Yes, some good will come out of it. But this popular "green" is too easy, it's still about coveting and belonging.

Think salt of the Earth rather than greener pastures. Or am I being selfish?

HA! I just heard a commercial {watching the weather, tornadoes moving this way} "soandso, going greener for you." ha! No they aren't they are going greener so you'll buy more from them.