April 26, 2008
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Throwing Away our Throw Away Attitiude
I need more sleep. I never seem to get enough. It’s not that I lack energy… but I am just tired. Or maybe it’s my allergies. I can never really tell. The way my eyes feel from lack of sleep is exactly the way they feel from my allergies. Sometimes I wish I could just go about my day to day business with my eyes closed. I hate driving because I can’t close my eyes. When I am on the road, I have to remain vigilant against all those lunatic drivers out there. Can’t shut my eyes for an instant. There’s actually a sign up near where I live that says Caution: Aggressive Drivers. I have to wonder, if the police know that there are aggressive drivers in a specific area… why do I never see the police staking it out for a speedtrap. And what color cars do aggressive drivers use? She I be watchful for the red cars or is it the yellow…? Or maybe it’s just the Hummers… They look like they’d just as soon roll over you as drive behind you.
I don’t like driving and never have. I was 22 before I got my license, and that was only because my mother badgered me into it. When I was just learning to drive, I saw a little black snake sunning itself on the tarmac and I almost rolled over it. If I had killed it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to drive after that. If I killed something (aside from bugs) with my car, I would probably have to stop driving altogether. I cringe with I see animals pulped in the road… even if it makes the ravens happy. How can people hit so many of them….? How fast are they moving that they can’t avoid hitting such a little thing. Are they just unobservant? It’s a wonder more kids don’t get hit, if that’s the case.
The other night, there was major traffic accident on my way home from work that made me take an alternate route. It was nearly midnight, so much harder to see little critters attempting a night crossing. Still, I managed to miss the dark brown furball that darted into the road as I headed home at 55MPH. Even though I was virtually on top of it when it decided to attempt suicide. So if I can avoid hitting whatever the heck it was, how come there are so many possums, raccoons, fox, and deer lying dead by the road. I mean what the H___ people? What if all the animals you’ve hit with your cars were people? How would you feel if you were hit by a car? Even if you don’t care that the animal is as alive as you are, it still has a central nervous system. It can still feel pain. The quality of pain an animal feels is just as real as the pain you would feel in the same situation.
Ugh… I just really don’t like cars. I don’t like how dangerous they are. I don’t like how they affect the environment. Even the “good” cars are bad for the environment, just not quite as bad as the bad cars. The price of gas keeps going up and the quality keeps going down. Have you noticed that the gas you fill your tank with just doesn’t last as long as it used to? It’s not as if I’m driving any more than I used to, but it seems like I’m filling up a lot more often. I am convinced there they are adding something to the gas or mixing it with something that gives it more volume and less oomph.
Even without emissions issue, rubber from the tires, chips of paint, and litter find their way into the environment. The litter especially infuriates me. Is it so hard to keep a small bag in your car for trash? It’s not like you can’t get a bag at any place you shop at. Even most takeout places will give you a bag these days. The world is not your garbage can people. Honestly, the environment can take care of itself, But that doesn’t mean you can push the limits to see how close you can get to the breaking point.
The problem is that we come from a throw away society. Long ago, or at least before I was born, some idiot… probably a republican, decided that making things to break, sooner rather than later, stimulated the economy because then we would have to go out and buy a replacement. That was the day people stopped taking pride in their work….stopped taking pride in their creations. That’s the day the value of everything was lost. If something is made to be discarded, how valuable can it be? Try as we might, no matter how well we take care of something, even for sentiment’s sake, it will last a couple years, and that is that.
I don’t want to pick on the Christians, but it is kind of a Christian idea that the world was put here for humans to Use. They try to imply that it has no value aside from our ability to use it. That a tree has no value aside from it’s ability to be turned into paper or furniture or mulch. That a mountain has no value aside from our ability to rip out its guts and smelt them into raw materials. That the ocean has no use aside from its ability to process raw sewerage and provide us with food (I know, ewwww). That the sky is just as beautiful gray with smog as it is when it’s the perfect blue that makes your breath catch in your throat.
I just wish that people could see the value in things beyond how they can be used. We need to break away from this throw away attitude. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… you know, it’s really not enough. We have to start making things more durable, make them to last like they used to. Most things won’t even last one generation, let alone two or three. Things aren’t treated any more lovingly than our environment. We need to give value to more than our own desires. We need to respect what we are given in this life as a gift, not as a right.
April 26th
In the Republic of Sierre Leone, New Year’s Day is devoted to a seed sowing ceremony designed to appease the goddess of fertility.
Comments (8)
With you on the driving thing. Hate it! I have hit a few suicidal deer. I swear they were doing the hari-kari thing! One, I managed to dodge and it turned around as I was about to escape the catastrophe and ran right through the drivers side window and broke its neck. I mean watcha gonna do if they are THAT determined. Scared the pee jabbers right ouda me, I’ll tell ya. I was about to go out the passenger side window. That one learnt me…don’t drive, don’t pollute. I do ride though, and they tell me my quarter horse Bob, pollutes with his poo. Oh well. What I need ta do is bag that…well, you know…and heat my studio with it in the winter time. But Bobby is kinda big for a quarter and I’m way to lazy ta get down and up very time he…well, you know. He never has had impact with a furry critter though.
On throw away attitudes, I have made big bucks off the throw aways of others. Did you see the photos of the Time Machine and Robotic Dragon? Done entirely from scrap. Lots of ways to turn what is trash to one into treasure for another…and get rich doing it.
I was complaining about drivers once to my now 87 year old mom. She put it in perspective for me. She said “When I see crazy drivers on the road, I picture how they rode a bike as a child.” I think of this everytime someone cuts me off or pulls out in front of me and it gives me a chuckle and then I don’t want to scream at them anymore. I don’t join in with the throw away world. I do keep myself on improving all the time, but I’m very aware of renew, reuse as I renew and reuse for art projects. I try not to buy throw away products. If it’s not going to last, I don’t want it.
My car was hit by an animal once. Was one of the oddest things that ever happened to me and I will never forget it as long as I live. It was 2001 and I was on my way home from work.. or rather heading to pick my son up from daycare when a chicken hawk flew straight into my windsheild and cracked it. I nearly crapped my pants. Of course I immediatly stopped the car, right in the middle of the road. That giant bird got up, stood on the hood – gave me the nastiest look I have ever received in life – spread it’s wings so wide that I could not even see out my newly shattered windsheild and promptly flew away. I always wonder what that bird was doing and if it was trying to tell me something.
I have long since shed my ‘throw away’ self.. my grams often repeated a quote from years ago that always stuck with me: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without” and I tend to apply that to everything I do. When in the presence of throw away things you can rest assured that everyone present will be annoyed with how often I use the word ‘wasteful’. Great post…
i am a christian and a republican…. sorry but not everyone in either of those groups beleives those things. i was agreeing with you wholeheartedly until that. but i don’t think most people are “true” christians as in a fallower of christs beleifs and words. he was a zen man. anyway… that’s not what i was getting at. i really agree with you on how a lot of people just don’t care about what they do to the environment. i try. i see how many people are around and try to curb my own use of “things”. i laugh at all this “green” stuff though. the point these “green” companies seem to be putting out is buy green and throw out all your other brown stuff (which will just junk up more landfills)…. buy more green things means you are throwing out something else. keep what you have for as long as possible and whenever it wears out or tears up then buy green. recycling good but buying more tshirts because it’s made out of a plastic bottle and it’s earth day doesn’t mean it’s going to help anything. (i also read something about throwng out all the blinds and bedsheets and go use green sheets cause it’s better for the environment… that sentence i read on an earth day cardboard cut out in the break room how many trees did that all those things cause to get cut down just for one week in the break room)… anyway theres a lot of things wrong with both sides… my philosophy says stop buying things keep what you have and don’t throw away so much. its really simple.
@BADBOYDOOMDADDY - I’m not saying that recycling is wrong. And your sculptures are very cool. But we could stand to make more things in general which do not need to be recycled.
@hatcherbee - Wow! I mean, horrible, but wow! I don’t really fault anyone if an animal attacks their car, but I don’t think all the animals by the side of the road went on a car hunting rampage. I think many people just don’t care. Still… I’m glad the chicken hawk wasn’t hurt too badly. I wonder what he was doing too. Wow.
@NightlyDreams - Yeah, I know I made some sweeping generalizations there, but statistically, it’s the Christians who say stuff like “Honor the creator, not the creation” and republicans who mock environmentalists for caring about how we impact the ecosystem. Obviously there’s always going to be an exception to any “rule,” which is where you come in.
I agree with you… don’t toss stuff just because there’s a “green” alternative. Wait until it’s used up and then replace it.
@harmony0stars - I absolutely agree. But there is method to such madness. There is a great deal of research being done right now on how that can be accomplished. The universal and initial conclusion of that research is, it cannot be accomplished within our present social order without extreme and draconian measures. One problem solved, invariably creates another. Give you an idea of how this works. Fuel pollutants are a problem. Any fuel solution requires lighter vehicles. Thus we have the increased use of ABS (acrylic butilate styrene) in vehicles. Now cars break instead of bend because of the use of ABS in both interior and exterior components. I am an expert on industrial plastics (among other things). I have done research with the ABS compound, Ryton, that will replace all engine components, the head, block, and drive train. Technology is there now, to build a truck capable of hauling a ton that is light enough for the average person to lift one end of. It could be even lighter, but weight is needed for traction. This is being addressed with new super traction tires that cling. END OF PART ONE. Part two; so where is this solution?
@harmony0stars - I was doing this research for Echlin Co. They are just about the biggest after-market (replacement parts) manufacturer. They buried the research. Why? because Ryton is very nearly indestructible and does not ware. It is an ABS plastic with the combined characteristics of hardened steel and a porcelain ceramic, but has great tactile strength. It can be found on a space shuttle but you sure as hell are not going to see it in even special use vehicles. The industry has hands over ears singing, “la la la, la, la, la, don’t wanna hear it”. It would eliminate uncountable billions in after-market sales world wide. It would eliminate many millions of jobs world wide, everything from local mechanics to entire manufacturing super structures. So, can you blame them their la, la, la. Add to that, these plastics you are exposed to more and more, with passing time have gifted me with two wonderful things you will be experiencing more of; central nervous system damage and cancer. END OF PART TWO. Next: Social research has discovered a solution.
@harmony0stars - There is, indeed, a solution. Large open ended economic systems naturally generate lots of waist. Without built in obsolescence and lots of waste, none of us can afford all these goodies…including the computer in front of you. It isn’t at all difficult to generate a simulation that makes it all work. It involves a large wasteful economic monster with closed loop tribal economic systems that feed off of the monsters waste. This is the message behind this particular category of art that I do. DEVOUR THE PROBLEM. Regurgitate BEAUTY. Jobs are maintained in the monster economy and tribal systems as social order are the solution as they were the way of old.