riding the diva

the ebb and flow of life has swept me away from writing for a while. i am gratified to find that some people actually missed my writing and to you i dedicate this work

change is a constant, yet conscious change is difficult. i have come across many blockages in my eco-warrior attempts. some i like to blame on my family who, quite naturally want what they want and don’t really give a rat’s ass that their chips come in a plastic bag.

that is hard to butt up against on a daily basis and not give in to unless i want to spend all my time in the kitchen, or be the queen bitch.( but that is not the point, but quite the potential article.) the point is to find the ways that i am moving forward. and i feel i am. my world view is evolving and my life moving in a way that i feel i am becoming more representative of what i want to become.

that sounds wierd. but really, how do you grow and change? first you get the idea and then you try to implement it. but as a human, i find i need to do it piece by piece. not a big jump in the hole.... just to go argghhhh, and splat.

so, my big development this past month or so was buying a diva cup. for those of you that don’t know, a diva cup is a menstrual cup. i really hated throwing away all those disgusting “feminine hygiene” products. our womyn’s time of the month is a sacred time, sometimes a difficult and intense time. to compound that with throwing away this product of our body, our blood, in fast food like containers...so that not even the worms can get at it is just plain gross.

not only do i get crampy, crappy, and cranky when i get my cycle, but my sensitivities are heightened by my connection to the bloody earth. in short, i was particularly disgusted by the deluge of bloody garbage. my precious bodily fluids should go into the ground nourishing her, should not be wrapped in chlorinated paper and encased in multiple layers of plastic.

but it took me a long time to get up the nerve and also, the money to buy a diva cup (tm). and i feel as though i have taken a real leap in the right direction. sure, it is a bit messy, a bit funky to insert, take out, dump and wash. but i don’t remember a time that having my period wasn’t messy. it feels sooooooooooooooo good to not throw all that stuff away and away. (and not to have to carry all those tampons and pads around.)

why did it take me years to try this? money is one answer and it is part of what the problem is. in order to do the right thing often, it costs more to start with. with the diva cup, i invested $30 and don’t have to spend $10 or more a month on pads and tampons. that only takes 3 months to start to get a return on my investment. there is so much in our lives that is like that. spend more time planning and preparing, spend more for the future instead of just going with the flow...

mad mom

today i am not the softie, the fantasy filled mom flying around the room in her imaginary cape and wand. today i made ricotta cheese and i am high. actually i am probably just feeling my chocolate and coffee in combination with my miraculously sleeping kids, while alas, i am not cleaning or cooking or asleep myself.

i am thankful that i have found motivation to live the slow food life. (next, fresh pasta to go with the fresh ricotta.) attempting to avoid the evil plastic drives me to be more creative. i just wish that i didn’t feel so strongly when plastic tubs or wrappings enter our lives, because, of course, there is no avoiding them. well there is, but i am not so severe, strict, or disciplined to say no to chinese food takeout when we pass by and my kids are hungry, or my mother-in-law kindly offers chicken soup for my flu-besieged hubby (and she certainly isn’t making it herself...). no to lollipops or cheese i can't yet make myself (i haven't made it that far yet) and sadly, the list goes on. so many times a day, it seems, i touch the devil's resin.

now many must think i am crazy and here is the sort of rant that my humor was hiding before:

according to Elizabeth Royte’s, Garbage Land, plastic is “toxic both to make and to dispose of. on the front end, says the EPA, the production of plastic emits the toxins tichloroethane, acetone, methylene chloride, methyl ethyl ketone, styrene, toluene, and I, I, I trichlorethane, as well as sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides, methanol, ethylene oxide, and volatile organic compounds. plastic manufacturers use copious quantities of benzene and vnyl chloride, which are known to cause cancer in humans. ingesting other ingredients of plastic production can lead to birth defects and damage the nervous system, blood, kidneys, and immune system. many of these chemicals are gases and liquid hydrocarbons that readily vaporize and pollute the air; many can cause damage to ecosystems. in an EPA ranking of the twenty chemicals whose production generates the most total hazardous waste, five of the top six are chemicals commonly used by the plastics industry. not surprisingly, plastic resin factories tend to be clustered in low-income communities of color (mostly in the Gulf States, which have easier access to gas lines). OHSA health studies have shown that people who work in and live near plants that manufacture plastics and the chemicals used to make them experience higher incidences of some kinds of cancer than other populations.” pp.190-191.

wowowowowow ow ow ow ow.......

it is rare that reading something changes my life anymore. there is so much wrong with the world, and i have felt that am contributing to it all by continuing to live without serious protest, without words against it all, but worse, without action. so much of it i feel is bigger than me. but the evil of plastic i touch and feel all the time. and it gives me the creeps. every time i throw a plastic wrapping away i think of the growing sea of plastic in the pacific ocean, or the time bombs of landfills that my waste will be going to. for there is no good end of plastic; it can’t be food for anything. toxic to make and toxic to waste. why is it ok to make it? because people make money from it? (the creed of the 80's, greed is good, plasticizes the world) are people amenable because more products can be sold ever more “safely?” ironically, we seem to need ever smaller packages to counter our "super-sized" world. in our quest for an ever more perfect world we will find immortality in our plastic embalmed world. me thinks for halloween i should be the world covered in plastic. hmmmmm ..... maybe next time i will be in the mood to joke about it.

a note to my readers: as i said, it is rare that i read something and it changes my life. i don’t think that i would have taken all this to heart for so long (and this is only the beginning) if it wasn’t for actually writing about doing it, because my intention to try to reduce my contribution to plastic proliferation would probably have faded with so many other grand ideas if it weren't for actually writing this blog and knowing, dear reader, that there is at least another human being out there reading this. You help to give me the power to drudge on...