Wide green spaces and the children who live here

Last night I sat down with my newest copy of Elle magazine which I wasn't really all that excited to read, partly because Mandy Moore was on the cover and I was very recently underwhelmed by her personality and intelligence. I was in a mood, one of those moods where nothing really sounded that engaging but I wasn't ready to crawl into bed.

So I cracked open another beer, put a movie in that didn't need much paying attention to (Love Actually, if you want to know) because I've already watched it about 97 times before. It's part of my grand neurotic personality that I feel I can't go to sleep without sitting in my big thrashed chair and putting a movie in. Even if I'm not really going to watch it. I would probably melt into a puddle if forced to live without ritual.

The current issue of Elle is the "Green" issue. I love it when fashion magazines do these issues, it always seems so contradictory to be cover to cover advertisements for everything you can buy under the sun, to fill your pages with jet setting people who are driving the most ridiculous cars, and many of whom actually travel in private jets or like John Travolta, fly their own; which is about the ultimate in personal petroleum waste. In fact, I would like to slap John Travolta with an environmental crime award, for which the punishment is removal of his plane. The dude was quoted as saying that he thought we should just find other planets to inhabit rather than worry so much about earth.

OK, I've had enough of this whole Scientology group that spends most of it's time cultivating lives based on fiction. FICTION. I'm beginning to get excessively angry at their refusal to remove their heads from dark damp places. First Tom Cruise with his whole anti-meds campaign. Yeah, who needs meds when you can pay for any amount of therapy, or fancy spa visits to calm nerves, or hire a permanent personal masseuse? It makes me angry in a guttural way to hear people with endless funds for comfort dictate how us poorer folk should be running our lives.

Oh my, I'm way off track here....

I got lost in the magazine. I'm going to suggest that all of you read this issue of Elle. There is a fascinating and enlightening article by Sara Corbett called "The Kids Are Not Alright" in which the author has her and her children's bodies tested for environmental toxins. I think everyone needs to hear the frightening results of this one. Why? Because you WILL make changes after you read what illegal pesticides they found in their bodies, when you hear how much our bodies absorb from the air, when you find out how we past pesticides to our children through our breast milk-the kind that never fade away.

I've mentioned many times how I have a love affair with fashion and how I look forward to reading the magazines every month. My love has been fading ever so slightly lately. Vogue and Harper's Bazaar have this kind of celebrity and big designer worship that I find a little gross. Vogue has actually always had superb writing, if you bother to read the articles. But it is a magazine dedicated to promoting the huge designers out there, the established corporate designers who, in my opinion, have started to all look exactly the same. Harper's is annoying because they seem obsessed with convincing people not to buy "fakes", as though I don't have a huge list of more important things to worry about. I just can't get on board with this image of Karl Lagerfeld's business starving to death because a lot of non-rich people are buying knock offs. Jesus!

Shit, I'm all riled up here. Elle has become the torch bearer of real change in the fashion industry. Why? Because every issue features more and more indie designers, the renegades of fashion, the new comers, the small companies bringing you fashion that relates more to how most of us actually live. Yeah, they have big fashion shoots with the tired giants like Dior, but more than any other fashion magazine, they are concerning themselves with the real innovators and after reading the recent issue, I am now convinced that Elle is the only fashion mag who seems to really cover meaningful ecological change in their "Green" issue.

So read it and be surprised.

It's all got me thinking about the things I'm not doing to help bring change. I could tell you all the changes I've already made, but that isn't really important is it? What's important is finding what we're all NOT doing, and find new places where we are ready to embrace change:

• I still microwave my food in plastic. If you read the article I mentioned, you will feel motivated to never do this again. Not very convenient to only use ceramics, but I feel charged with fear about what I've been doing to myself and my family. It's time to commit to not microwaving food in plastic.

• I am still buying microwavable popcorn. Again, the article I mentioned talks about certain plastics that are especially toxic to people and one of the worst is the type of plasticisers used to coat the insides of popcorn bags. VERY-BAD-SHIT. I heard this before, from a separate source, made a pledge not to buy microwavable popcorn, then went ahead and started buying it again because popcorn is not as bad a snack as some other things Max likes to eat. I will research to find out if any companies manage to produce the popcorn bags without this awful plasticine-slicking-grossness that will infiltrate your child's body and never leave.

• Because the water at work is undrinkable, seriously undrinkable, I have been buying bottled water almost every day. This is not my first choice, very wasteful. I'm inspired to check out getting a water delivery service so that I'm not wasting so much plastic. Or, maybe I could just get a water purifying pitcher from Britta. (we don't have lots of money to spend on water, this might be cheaper for us). I would like to note that after Monica from Happy Zombie pointed out the water bottles in my trash can, I have started a recycling box for them.

• I don't turn out lights in my house at night until I go to bed. I don't like a dark house while I'm awake. However, I'd rather be able to keep living on earth than have to go to some uninhabitable planet with John Travolta and his ever growing brood (yeah, his foot-print is constantly growing larger. Maybe we should just send him and his family to another planet since they seem so keen on the idea) I think it's time I worked harder on this. Maybe it won't change the planet to turn out the kitchen light when I'm not in it, but EVERY BIT HELPS. That's the thing to remember.

• I don't dry any of my clothes outside on a line. I used to. At my old house. It must be pointed out that here in the Pacific Northwest there is this moisture issue to think about. There are a lot of months when line drying isn't particularly practical, however, the whole summer is as dry as California and that's enough months of line drying to make an over-all difference in the energy I use. I'm going to install the kind of line I had in the first home we owned. The kind that is rigged onto wheels so that you can just pull your clothes back in when they're dry. Very handy.

I know there's plenty more to do. I'll keep thinking this out. It's best, when making changes like this, to take smaller steps so as not to overwhelm yourself. Anyone else want to make a few changes with me? Is there anything you do that you've been thinking about changing but haven't yet? Let's take some steps forward! I know it isn't easy to make changes that impact the convenience in our lives, and believe me, I LOVE CONVENIENCE too, but it will be pretty inconvenient to have to nurse children through environmental illnesses.*



*I don't mean chemical sensitivity, I mean the rising number of people getting leukemia, cancers, breast cancer, liver failure...all of these things are a lot less random than many people like to think.