No Longer Over-Ambitious and Challengicious

For a couple years now, the tag-line under the title of my blog has read "over-ambitious and challengicious." I like the tag. It's cute, it's funny, it's pithy, but it no longer describes this blog.

At the time that I started using the tag, I was in the early stages of my eco-journey. I constantly was challenging myself to do more, new things. To cut my carbon footprint lower, lower, lower! I was going without heat, not buying stuff, and even making my own butter.

But that level of eco-intensity was unsustainable, for me, anyway. The truth is, I can go nearly freegan for a month, but over the long term, things get much more difficult. Looking over my past several blog entries, a constant theme has emerged: balance. How do we balance our environmental concerns while still living the rest of our lives?

So from now on, that's what this blog is going to mainly focus on. There will still be other things here and there. I'm sure I'll get irritated about some policy proposal and write a long-winded post. There will still be book reviews and the occasional rant. But the thrust of the blog is going to focus on what it means to truly live the sustainable life.

I will continue to be honest with you about what's been working for me long-term and what hasn't. What's easy and what's not. Where I'm slipping and where I'm succeeding. And I'll count on you, dear readers, to ensure that I don't slide too far back. Balance is one thing, but it's no excuse to just get lazy.

So, join me on my continued ride as I try and figure out how to balance eco-awareness with my friends, family, work, and play. Cheer me on, commiserate with me, and call me on my s**t.

And thanks, as always, for reading.

What's The Appropriate Amount of Food Packaging?

Most of us in the eco-world probably agree that in an ideal world we'd all eat a mostly local, organic diet of food we bought at a farmers' market and cooked ourselves. We'd thriftily manage our food waste through careful meal planning, and would use leftover almost-bad veggies in a nice no-waste stew once a week. The little waste that was unusable or unavoidable would go in our compost piles or be fed to our pet chickens.

Unfortunately, the reality for many of us eco-bloggers and the majority of Americans is quite different. As someone who has struggled through Crunchy Chicken's No Waste Challenge (sign up now!) several times, I can attest that it is HARD not to waste food.

Which is what makes this article today in the Freakonomics blog so interesting. In it, James McWilliams points out that though many of us disparage food packaging, it does have the effect of increasing shelf life of food. As a result, food packaging might decrease food waste.

I know it's not super popular to be pro-food packaging in the eco-blogosphere, but I couldn't help nodding along when reading McWilliams' post. Last year, I subscribed to a CSA for a few months and I found that I wasted a LOT of food. It wasn't just that it was too much food for one person (which it was) or that I was too lazy to cook much (I was.) Sometimes, the food would arrive at my door almost spoiled. I also found that oftentimes, unless I processed the food right away, it would go bad.

I've come to realize that I personally need to take short cuts in order to cook more, eat more fruits and veggies, and waste less. For instance, I will often put off washing and peeling my farmers' market bought carrots. The carrots will go bad, and I'll have to dump them in the trash. On the other hand, if I buy organic baby carrots, I'll probably eat the whole bag in a few days. Similarly, the resealable bags of baby spinach are my friends.

Now, there still is an inordinate amount of food packaging waste out there. I still fail to see why bananas require plastic wrap. And though I have occasionally bought the Trader Joe's packaged cut apples, I recognize that the inability to cut your own apples is an extraordinary form of laziness.

But I think we all need to assess (as always) what the right balance is in our lives. If food packaging keeps us from wasting food, it might not be the evil bogeyman that many environmentalists believe it to be. I suspect Beth is going to kill me for suggesting this, but if the waste trade-off is either the plastic bag for a bag of pre-washed lettuce, or an entire head of lettuce that rotted before you got to eating it, I would probably say to go with the bag of lettuce. (To be clear, the obvious best solution is to buy a head of lettuce and then not waste it. I'm not denying that. I'm just arguing that that's not always what actually HAPPENS despite our best intentions.)

My point, aside from antagonizing everybody, is that the reality is that Americans waste a lot of food. Thus, rather than trying to achieve an idealized unpackaged world that may be unrealistic for the average consumer, we need to take a hard look and differentiate between frivolous packaging and packaging that might actually lead to less overall waste.

Adventures on SF Muni

I've mentioned before that I really kinda totally hate the bus. I go to great lengths to avoid the bus. In New York, I would walk across town rather than take the crosstown bus. In London, which actually has awesome buses, I would transfer tubes three times rather than take the bus.

One time, I famously forced Honda to walk on the narrow shoulder of a highway amidst broken bottles and cigarette butts because I didn't want to take the bus. (Halfway down the road, we gave up and called a cab to come and rescue us.)

I really hate the bus. I hate waiting for the bus, I hate being on the bus, I hate the sudden stops on the bus that make me fall over. I will frequently walk two miles rather than take the bus.

But I also don't have a car, and sometimes the bus is the best possible option.

So, the other day, I was in San Francisco, and I had to get to a panel discussion, and I had to take the bus. And, of course, I was pressed for time, so the bus was late. First ten minutes late. Then twenty minutes late. Then a full half hour late.

And my irritation at the budget strapped SF Muni system and the bus as mode of transportation grew and grew.

Eventually, the bus arrived, I made it to the panel and all was well.

Until I had to go home.

It was dark, and there weren't a lot of people around, and I did not feel like waiting half an hour for a bus. So I decided to call Muni and find out when the next bus would be arriving. (By the way, I totally, totally love this feature of Muni. I love that you can CALL and get to a customer service rep who will tell you when the next bus will be arriving.) So, I dialed up, got through to my lovely Muni rep and asked her when my bus would be arriving.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, it looks like that bus is no longer operating for the night."

"Oh. Um. Okay. So ... how do I get back to [SF neighborhood]."

"Well, you could take the X bus. In fact, it should be pulling up any minute now. And then, from there, you can transfer to the Y."

"Any second now? Wait, where?"

And then, I had an, "Oh crap," moment where I saw said bus. That I was just about to miss.

So I ran over to the bus and literally FLAGGED it down.

Now, though I hate the bus, I have, in fact, ridden the bus in a number of different cities and countries. However, I have never flagged a bus down like it was a taxicab. Usually, flagging buses does not work. But in San Francisco, it apparently does.

"Where are you going?!" asked the flummoxed bus driver.

"Um, I'm going to [Neighborhood]."

"You need the W bus for that."

"I know, but it's stopped running for the night."

"Really? You sure?"

"Yes, I called Muni and asked."

"Aight then. Well, I tell you what. I thought you was crazy, I did! But you can take this bus and transfer to the V and then you can take the V. Okay?"

"Okay, thank you."

"Aight, that's fine. I thought you was crazy! Now go sit down and I'll tell you where to get off."

So I did. And he did.

And I still kinda hate the bus, but I think I might love SF Muni. Because after flagging the bus down like a crazy person, the driver was nice enough to not only direct me to exactly where I needed to go. Not only that, but when he saw me scrounging in my bag for the remaining twenty cents of fare (somehow I'm still carrying loads of British and European change in my purse that gets mixed in with the American coins), he just waved me away and let it go.

But that might be because he still thought I was crazy.

The Sustainable Life

There has been quite the response to my post, "Is Living Sustainably Unsustainable?" If you haven't read the comments in that post yet, I'd encourage you to do so. The comments, as well as subsequent posts by Jess, Green Bean, Melinda, and Chile suggest that finding balance is something we all struggle with.

I have remarked on this before, but it's really easy to assume that everyone else in the eco-blogosphere is always perfect. That no one else slips up. That all the other bloggers are local food eating, recycling, never driving maniacs.

But having met and talked to several bloggers personally, I've realized that that's not the case.

None of us are perfect. All of us mess up. And all of us consciously decide, "You know what? Here's my limit. I'm just not going to attempt X."

********

The other day, I got to see Michael Pollan speak. (It's rather hilarious ... going to a Michael Pollan lecture in the Bay Area is kind of like going to a rock concert in atmosphere.)

One of the first things I noticed was that Michael Pollan of all people was drinking bottled water. "Et tu, Michael Pollan?" I thought, feeling incredibly smug and judgey. Here was Michael Pollan, the man who tells America how to eat, drinking some damn bottled water. Doesn't he know better?!!!!

And then I snapped out of it. Yes, he probably does know better. In fact, he probably avoids bottled water as much as possible just like the rest of us. But he probably also accepts that when he gives lectures, sometimes he'll be provided with a bottle of water instead of a glass of tap water. And when that happens, instead of eco-divaing out, he just drinks from the damn bottle.

Later that evening, he told a story about being accosted in the grocery store in Berkeley for having a box of Froot Loops or something of the like in his cart. (For the record, it was his son's weekend cereal.) The poor man literally cannot grocery shop without being judged.

And that's when it hit me. In order to find the Sweet Spot of Sustainable Living, we must put aside the judging. Judging of others. Judging of ourselves. Judging of our significant others.

Instead, we need to open ourselves up to experiment, to fail, to backtrack, to succeed, to grow, and to be human.

Pollan says, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." To that I add, "Live sustainably. Do your best. And enjoy life."

Balance In The Form Of A Toothbrush Holder

There are some incredibly thoughtful and insightful comments up about my previous post, so thank you everyone for taking the time to weigh in.

I agree with what many of you mentioned. Living sustainably is all about finding the right balance for you. Like eating right or exercising, you have to find what works for your life. And that is likely going to be different than what works for someone else.

Katy mentioned that she wished more eco-bloggers continued blogging seriously after their "eco-challenges," because in some ways, finding the balance is the more interesting and relevant story. And, I agree with that as well. It's inspiring to see that people can give up fridges or heat or shopping or what have you for a year, but it's in some ways even more inspiring to see how people handle the day to day of their lives year after year after year.

And I think that's one of the reasons why I've kept blogging. Why I don't gloss over my struggles.

I was talking to Honda a couple months ago about how everything I own is falling apart. This is what happens when you go from being a non-consumer to being a student to being unemployed. I haven't really bought much in 2.5 years, and well, it shows. My laptop is dead. My iPod is almost dead. I need all new shoes.

I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to handle all the new purchases I will inevitably have to make. The other day, I stood in the Bath aisle of Bed, Bath and Beyond for fifteen minutes trying to decide whether or not to buy a toothbrush holder. On the one hand, not having one had been bugging me and I was fairly certain a toothbrush holder was going to be hard to come by used. (And while I am generally very pro-used things, I also think the likelihood is high that if I found a used toothbrush holder it would be kinda grody.) On the other hand, a toothbrush holder is hardly a necessity.

If I had lacked a toothbrush holder during my year of non-consumerism, I would have sucked it up and gone without. I would have used a cup, or just left my toothbrush on the sink.

But I'm not a strict non-consumer anymore. I wanted a toothbrush holder and I could get a fairly inoffensive one fairly cheaply.

So I bought it. Because life is, above all, about finding balance. And while I don't plan to become a spendthrift, I also am ready to start buying a couple things here and there that might not be, strictly speaking, necessities.

Is Living Sustainably Unsustainable?

The other day I was talking to an old blogger friend, one who hasn't been posting much in a while. This is not unusual. In fact, of all my old blogger pals, only a handful still regularly post. The rest have mostly retired or post on rare occasion.

Blogging is tough, make no mistake. Writing day in and day out can be a chore, and at a certain point, you get to a place where you wonder if you have anything left to write. After all, how much can one write about not shopping?

But I think with eco-bloggers, there's more to it than that. Many of us started blogging at the beginning of our journey. Our first posts were about how proud we were for giving up plastic grocery bags. Gradually, we started increasing the eco-difficulty: giving up paper towels, going to the farmers' market, cooking more, making our own butter. Some of us line-dried our clothes. Others started gardens. Others gave up toilet paper. Others gave up their fridge.

And then ... time goes by. Life catches up to you. Work gets busier. You move house. You break up with your partner. Or maybe you get married. And you realize that living this so-called sustainable life is HARD.

So you start to back slide. You start throwing loads in the dryer again. Just once, one time, because you're on a tight schedule and your son needs his soccer uniform in a couple hours. And then because you're going out of town, or someone is visiting, or because it's Thursday, damnit and you're tired. And pretty soon you're back to using your dryer all the time. And you feel really guilty about it, but you also just don't have the energy to use the dryer.

Or if you're me, you go from cooking all the time to cooking almost never. And I do feel guilty about it, very guilty about it actually. And yet, somehow I rarely have it in me to prepare a full meal.

It's not just the cooking I've backslid in. I've gone back to using toilet paper (though I buy 100% recycled, and honestly I personally think the giving up toilet paper produces such minor eco-benefits that it's more of a bragging point than anything.) I use my space heater more often than I should. I take longer and hotter showers than I should. I drink more soda than I should. I use a face wash with bad chemicals. The list goes on and on. On rare occasion, I've even committed the ultimate sin of getting a plastic bag at the store.

I think the issue is that so much of eco-blogging was or has been about challenging oneself to do MORE, MORE, MORE. Meanwhile, we live in a world where everyone else is doing ... pretty much nothing really. Where it's more of the same from our elected officials. Where Copenhagen is a big ol' bust.

So it's very difficult to be busting your ass trying to live this eco-life. You start wondering what you're doing and why. And you question whether you can really maintain work, friends and family, and your eco-nutty life. AND blog about it every day.

So my question to you is this: Is living sustainably actually unsustainable? If you think not, how do you do it? How do you find the right balance? What is your right balance? And how long have you been keeping this balance going?

To Shave or Not to Shave, That Is The Question

I was bouncing around the internets today when I caught an interesting discussion going on in the comments of Crunchy's post about natural waxing. One commenter suggested that we women need to get over ourselves and learn to live and love our hair. Another argued, "Just seems to me that waxing the pubes and 'natural lifestyle' may be somewhat mutually exclusive."

To a certain extent, I think both of these commenters make fair points. There's a great deal of societal pressure for women to remove body hair and it sucks. I sympathize with women who would prefer not to shave their legs, but feel pressured to either go hair-free or cover their legs. Especially in a workplace environment, women often have no choice but to comply with societal norms. And that's not cool.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that I do see a contradiction between wanting to remove body hair and wanting to live a more "natural lifestyle" whatever that means. We all groom ourselves. We cut our hair, our nails. And I don't believe that societal pressure is limited to women either. Ask any American bearded man whether or not he feels societal pressure to shave. The answer is very likely, "Yes!"

I do believe one can be environmentally conscious while still preferring to remove some body hair. It's important not to conflate "eco-friendly" with "alternative lifestyle that I support." It's great if you don't want to shave or wear make-up. Good for you if you don't care about fashion. But, conversely, wanting to shave, wear make-up, and liking clothes does not make you anti-environment. Honestly, I've personally never understood what the big problem with shaving was. I don't know about you all, but I bought a Venus razor about five years ago and change the blade approximately once a year. As far as I'm concerned, the plastic and energy expended here is pretty minor. Waxing has its issues, but I circumvented that problem by switching to threading my eyebrows. For me, given that I prefer to remove (some) hair, giving that up would pretty much constitute hair-shirt environmentalism.

I think, in the end, grooming decisions are a matter best left up to the individual. (Or maybe the individual and their significant other.) As I see it, my job, as an eco-nut, is not to judge or to proselytize. My job is simply to say, "If you wish to remove your hair, here are some more environmentally friendly ways to do so."