Thursday, January 4, 2018

7ToF: in which I do not save the Earth

1. When PellMel was in preschool, her teacher did a unit on the environment that involved naming an activity like "leaving the lights on" or "putting a newspaper in the trash." After each one, her little preschoolers would chorus, "That's not saving the earth!" Which of course resulted in us snarkily, endlessly repeating decades later, "That's not saving the earth!" whenever one of us feels it is appropriate.

2. On the Aunt BeaN Scale of Family Environmentalism, where 1 is "we get double plastic bags at the grocery store and throw trash out the car window," and 10 is "we forage for seeds and nuts and bicycle everywhere," I give our family a solid mid-range 6. We recycle the things we can, we use cloth grocery bags (most of the time), the cars we use for everyday running around get decent mileage, we carry reusable water bottles (although we have so many of them we've probably moved out the other side into some sort of hyper-consumer alternate scale), and we understand that climate change means it may be intermittently colder than usual in spite of overall global warming. On the other hand, we fly too often, we eat meat, and we don't drive Priuses.

3. Awhile ago I read a discussion by a bunch of hyper-environmentalist types that was sort of like True Confessions where they told the one thing they guiltily did that was completely against their environmentalist values. The answers ranged from a woman who left the water running while she was at work because her cat would only drink running water to a guy who still drank beer out of bottles even though he can't recycle glass. (Sadly, after googling around, I can't give you the link because I couldn't find it again.)

4. Well, here is mine: I use disposable face wipes. Every single night. I "have to" wear makeup for work to avoid scaring the crap out of my co-workers, I hate washing my face at night, I can't sleep in makeup or my face breaks out, so it's got to come off somehow. The reason I am thinking about this is that I read an entire column online last week detailing all the reasons you shouldn't use disposable face wipes (environmental/waste concerns, germs on the wipe, it just smears things around, etc) and I decided I just don't care. I can tell you from looking at the wipe when I'm done and then looking at my skin that most of my makeup is off.

Say it with me: that's not saving the earth!!

5. Years ago we talked about sensory integration, a challenge that some of us have where we can't ignore minor sensations. We are driven crazy by socks with seams, tags in our clothing, air blowing directly on our skin (because it moves the hairs on my arm, damn it), and any number of gazillion other things that don't bother most people (like water dripping down our arms when we wash our faces at night). 

6. So, yeah, that's me. Today's sensory integration issue is clothing made from synthetic fabric. Polyester, nylon, acrylic. I can't stand them. A polyester shirt can look fabulous, and in ten minutes I'm ready to shred it into tiny little pieces. An acrylic sweater turns me into a ball of static cling and electric zaps. Polyester pants turn into a sodden mass of wrinkles because I get so clammy inside them. I'm OK with blends-- cotton/poly, rayon/spandex, etc. but an entirely plastic-based fabric just makes me want to scream.

7. Which is why I've become so aware since going back to work that looking professional involves wearing synthetic clothing. I realize that I can't wear jeans and a sweatshirt to work (although believe me, I would if it wasn't against the dress code), but for women, if you want to look really, top-notch professional, you've got to wear polyester clothes. I've tried. I really have. I've spent several hundred dollars on professional looking clothes that make me want to chew rocks after I've had them on for a couple of hours.

I'm gradually building up a wardrobe of things that are acceptably natural and not in the jeans-and-t-shirt realm, but there really isn't a good answer here. Or at least, if there is, I haven't found it. Today I wore boots, skinny cotton pants, a paisley-patterned long sleeve cotton t-shirt, and a hip length open cardigan. It was fine-- I was comfortable, and it passed the dress code, but if I were in a different position I would have been under-dressed. Fortunately, I have no desire to move upward into management, so I can just dawdle in the lower levels in my comfortable clothes. If you have any advice, let me know.

So that's it for me this week. Why in the world do I tell you these things?

Hope you have a nice weekend.

No comments: