Reader resolutions for the new year
My request for readers to send their spiritually worthy New Year's resolutions to me brought in some lovely thoughts.
Here was my favorite:
Q: My New Year's resolution is to try to remember to take my cloth reusable bags into Walmart and to take my own reusable container when I go out to eat. This takes some remembering. I remember my bags when going to the grocery store, but it took some time to really make it a habit. Now I rarely forget, but so far, I am not doing so well for Walmart and restaurants. I am going to keep them in the front seat of my car (since I forgot them today) and see if that keeps me more on track.
When my husband and I were in the Peace Corps many, many years ago, NO stores had bags in Belize (then British Honduras), and we managed just fine. Wouldn't it be fine if we could do that in this country now? -- S from my home state of Wisconsin
A: I love your New Year's resolution, dear S, because it is so small. Let us leave the bringing of world peace to others who feel they have some impact in that realm. As for me, I see in your resolution the wisdom of Mother Teresa, who taught, "God has not called us to do great things. God has called us to do small things with great love."
You are ahead of me. My car is filled with plastic bags and that is usually where they remain when I go shopping. I only rarely remember, but I am doing better now. I think I am embarrassed to show the store that I have shopped somewhere else. I come from the old free paper and plastic bag world and it is hard to adjust.
I have not yet brought my own doggie bag to a restaurant. I just don't know how to explain to my friends why I brought a Tupperware container to the movie so that I would have it when we went out for dinner after the film. It seems embarrassingly food-centric. However, I praise you for doing it. Bringing your own food container into a restaurant must have the effect on you that at least you are not going to eat all the food you have ordered. It does however, lay you open to the checkmate move by your companions who can ask you, "Instead of bringing food home, why not just order less?" And then, of course, there is the problem of eating day-old leftovers. The only leftover food I can tolerate is cold pizza and I usually eat all the pizza when it is hot.
So, let's consider some other small things we can do to fix small parts of our broken world.
There is my mother's old commandments, "Turn off the lights."
And "Don't let the water run."
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