Last night's wind blew in the cold, alright---it's 33ยบ this morning, with flecks of white in the air. As I write, the flecks are multiplying...
My bike had a flat so it's in the shop for a tune up. I'm splurging and buying snow tires for my bike this year: $60 each! At least bikes need only two. I hope I can bike much of this winter, since I can take the path along the old rail line--the Greenway--90 percent of the mile-and-a-half to work.
Thinking about climate change, I can't think of One Huge Obvious Thing that I could do to drastically reduce my use of carbon (such as stop driving)––not because I am a champion of environmentalism, but because I am lazy.
I figured out long ago how many hours I'd have to work to pay for a car, for instance, and it seemed a bad deal, especially since working so many hours meant I'd mostly use a car to get to work. Ditto home-owning: lots of work to have more space. Though that might be nice, it's not for me.
Nikos Kazantzakis wrote a novel about Saint Francis that opens with one of Francis's followers saying that laziness had been his own path to God.
That's been the case with me and the high-carbon lifestyle.
When I was young, my hardworking Wasp grandmother told my mother she didn't understand why I had no ambition.
Laziness has gone hand in hand with my philosophical beliefs ––or is that just a cognitive bias (we choose beliefs that back up our lives)?
I don't think that my temperament was the only thing that dictated my beliefs, and to the extent it did, it didn't have to work hard.
I always said, "I'd rather have time than money."
Since I've wanted to spend my time sitting around, reading and looking out the window, that's worked well for me.
It's key, of course, that I live in the richest land ever.
I've always known I was living off the gravy of that society--no moral credit whatsoever to me!
I've benefited hugely from free education growing up (and affordable college tuition, in my day), libraries, free media, cheap groceries, the internet, thrift stores stuffed with almost-new stuff, ibuprofen and other over-the-counter drugs... plus the HUGE luck of having fundamental good health.
It's been a grand life! I always said, one day we'll look back and marvel that we used to have HOT RUNNING WATER anytime we wanted.
I dislike the superior moral tenor of modern minimalists---they can live the way they do for the same reasons I do––because other people have footed the carbon bill.
Temperament aside, growing up during the first environmental movements of the 60s and 70s influenced me too. At an impressionable age, I learned about pollution + consumerism. Our hippie neighbors helped start the first food co-op in town. Back then, co-ops didn't stock any packaged food, or meat, or provide bags...
Now food co-ops in town are slightly more benign, maybe, than chain grocery stores, though you could argue chains are less damaging because of the economy of scale, since it uses less carbon to transport huge amounts of food than to deliver small orders to boutique stores.
Time to go to work. I just wanted to start thinking about this...
My bike had a flat so it's in the shop for a tune up. I'm splurging and buying snow tires for my bike this year: $60 each! At least bikes need only two. I hope I can bike much of this winter, since I can take the path along the old rail line--the Greenway--90 percent of the mile-and-a-half to work.
Thinking about climate change, I can't think of One Huge Obvious Thing that I could do to drastically reduce my use of carbon (such as stop driving)––not because I am a champion of environmentalism, but because I am lazy.
I figured out long ago how many hours I'd have to work to pay for a car, for instance, and it seemed a bad deal, especially since working so many hours meant I'd mostly use a car to get to work. Ditto home-owning: lots of work to have more space. Though that might be nice, it's not for me.
Nikos Kazantzakis wrote a novel about Saint Francis that opens with one of Francis's followers saying that laziness had been his own path to God.
That's been the case with me and the high-carbon lifestyle.
When I was young, my hardworking Wasp grandmother told my mother she didn't understand why I had no ambition.
Laziness has gone hand in hand with my philosophical beliefs ––or is that just a cognitive bias (we choose beliefs that back up our lives)?
I don't think that my temperament was the only thing that dictated my beliefs, and to the extent it did, it didn't have to work hard.
I always said, "I'd rather have time than money."
Since I've wanted to spend my time sitting around, reading and looking out the window, that's worked well for me.
It's key, of course, that I live in the richest land ever.
I've always known I was living off the gravy of that society--no moral credit whatsoever to me!
I've benefited hugely from free education growing up (and affordable college tuition, in my day), libraries, free media, cheap groceries, the internet, thrift stores stuffed with almost-new stuff, ibuprofen and other over-the-counter drugs... plus the HUGE luck of having fundamental good health.
It's been a grand life! I always said, one day we'll look back and marvel that we used to have HOT RUNNING WATER anytime we wanted.
I dislike the superior moral tenor of modern minimalists---they can live the way they do for the same reasons I do––because other people have footed the carbon bill.
Temperament aside, growing up during the first environmental movements of the 60s and 70s influenced me too. At an impressionable age, I learned about pollution + consumerism. Our hippie neighbors helped start the first food co-op in town. Back then, co-ops didn't stock any packaged food, or meat, or provide bags...
Now food co-ops in town are slightly more benign, maybe, than chain grocery stores, though you could argue chains are less damaging because of the economy of scale, since it uses less carbon to transport huge amounts of food than to deliver small orders to boutique stores.
Time to go to work. I just wanted to start thinking about this...
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