If you scratch Jeny, she bleeds green. She is conscious of her family’s carbon footprint on the planet at all times. She composts, plants a garden, recycles everything—glass, plastics, paper, clothes, toys, books. The family uses cloth napkins, one for each family member for three days, instead of stacks of paper ones.
We have been doing many of the same things for a long time, but Jeny always seems to be ahead of the curve. Just when I think I am doing pretty well, she will mention something that has yet to occur to me, or something I have thought about, but which has seemed too much trouble so far.
I was complaining to Jeny one day about how much I was spending on replacing canvas bags because of our carelessness. “Mom, really! Are you buying canvas bags? There’s another whole way for you to think green!” Well, that was sure beyond me. What more could we do? I was not quite willing to put the groceries into the car one by one without using a bag at all.
“Go to the middle bedroom and look in your closet”, she said. What was that all about, I thought? Clueless, I marched in and took a look. There they were shoved up on the corner shelf. The stack of empty, canvas bags I had collected from conferences, recently, and over the years. C-Span, Trial Lawyers, The Democratic Party, Palmetto Health, Interfaith Alliance, Pro-Law, and, the most recent one from just two weeks ago, Robert Ford for Governor. All colors, all shapes, all sizes. Waiting to be recycled. Waiting to be filled with groceries.
Why hadn’t I thought of that? Another lesson from my daughter.
Gosh, I do the same thing and also have canvas bags from everywhere under the sun. Now, if I can only remember to take them with me!
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