Going Green

Going red is for the health of our heart. Going green is for the health of our heart's love, the environment that we are to take good care of.

My elder daughter Sarah is one such green activist at home. Not only does she preach what she believes, she acts as well. While taking a walk in the neighborhood with our dog this afternoon, my wife told me that Sarah would pick up a trashed can on the road side, take it home and place it in the recycle bin. Recently, Sarah recycled worn out shoes at a local Nike store.

Early this afternoon, Sarah went one step further with her green campaign from verbal reminding to written cautioning. One note sticking above a light switch in our kitchen lists six green rules that we are to observe.

1. Use a reusable sponge or rag to clean up spills rather than paper towels.
2. When printing a document, use both sides of the paper and change the margin settings to an inch or lower (go to page setup).
3. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours.
4. Save energy (and lower the electric bill) by turning off the lights and television when you leave the room.
5. Unplug all plugs when you're not using them. It draws energy just by being plugged into the power outlet.
6. Recycle all old sneakers @ letmeplay.com/reuseashoe to find out how to donate them to create sports courts.

On the door to our garage, we are reminded to "bring a canvas tote to the mall or grocery store; most plastic bags aren't biodegradable".

Sitting in the bathroom downstairs, I read six more points of green rules:

1. An estimated 100 billion plastic bags end up in landfills every year. Bring your own tote to stores!
2. Switch to low-energy fluorescent light bulbs. They last up to 10 times as long as regular light bulbs.
3. Clean the lint filter in the dryer regularly. A dirty filter uses up to 30% more energy to dry clothes.
4. Buy clothes made from organic cotton, which doesn't harm wildlife or the environment.
5. Instead of using the dryer, try using a drying rack. You'll save electricity and the jeans won't shrink.
6. Shorten your showers by two minutes and you'll conserve about 10 gallons of water.

I made a mental note of not using the paper tissues too liberally. Unbeknown to me then, my childhood days were as green as one could get when I used solid dirt balls to wipe after visiting toilet (a dirt hole dug beneath the ground with two parallel planks lying across the hole for crouching down).

On the door of the second floor towel closet, a note reads: Use one towel and one wash cloth per week!

Being somewhat of a sloth, I certainly have far exceeded that requirement.

A note above the light switch on the stairway asks: Turn off lights when you leave!!

Next to the night light switch, a note says with triple urgency: UNPLUG plugs when you're not using them!!!

Let's all go green and do our share to preserve our God-given environment. Let green reign.