I haven’t posted for a while, and it’s mostly due to sloth.  But it’s also due to my previous mindset about talkgreen: I really like posting about new energy-saving gadgets or new green technology.  So, if in searching the web for weeks at a time, nothing really “pops” to me, like a new type of dog-powered lawnmower (I am working on this) or a way to heat your pool geothermally (probably only feasible if you live near a volcano), then I nod off at my computer and don’t post.

But today I started feeling guilty about my absence from the talkgreen community.  So I decided simply to post about something that’s been on my mind, something that hits me where I live.

The laziness factor.  I’ve got it bad, and it often makes me a poor environmentalist.

For instance: this plagues me when I go to the supermarket.  I keep old shopping bags in the hatchback of my Prius, the old paper-inside-plastic-with-handles deal, with the intent to re-use them until they literally fall apart.  I have proudly pointed them out to the odd automotive passenger as evidence of my holier-than-thou love of the Earth.

The problem is, at least 50% of the time I go food shopping, I arrive at the check-out counter and it hits me – I have left them in the car.  I’m an idiot, I think to myself.  I of course have the option of getting out of line and going to the car to get them — it would only take a minute or two.  But I’d have to give up my place in line, and often I’d have to put a few items back in my cart, the ones I had already loaded onto the unforgiving black conveyer belt.  Or I would have to make everyone behind me wait while I run out to the car, which I would find mortifying.  So although I usually berate myself for being lazy, I guess it is a combination of forgetfulness, embarrassment, and laziness, to be exact.  But, inevitably, I just slouch my shoulders, answer “plastic” and skulk out of the store, loading the groceries into my car on top of the saved bags, which silently mock me.

Now, reader, please understand, when I get home and put away my purchased items, I recycle the plastic bags.  I’m not a barbarian.

But neither am I the conscientious earth-first tree-hugger that I’d like to think I am.

I promise to work on it, and perhaps I’ll keep you posted.