Magical Mid-Thirties Enviro-Revival

In 1990, I was motivated to dabble in environmentalism by seeing my first ever video about Earth Day, played for me by my 5th grade teacher, Ms. Smotek. When I saw this book featured at one of the bookstores I frequented with my parents, I asked them to buy it for me. A few days later, I had read it in its entirety.

I was nine years old and already yearning to take control of the world I lived in, which made the premise of the book all the more appealing to me. Some of the things it suggested I could really do on my own, even at a young age. I could turn off the tap water while I was brushing my teeth instead of letting it run. I could make sure I turned off lights when I left a room and that other lights in other rooms of the house were shut off when no one was in them.

The book also suggested things I was not in the position to make unilateral decisions about. One day after I finished the book, I asked my dad if we could do one of the things it suggested, which had to do with buying a more earth-friendly type of something than we typically bought.  While I can’t remember what specific item I was advocating for, I do remember his response:

“No.”

Dismayed, I remember trying to recite what I had read in the book about why it was important to change every day habits to save the earth, certain I could reason with him. But his response didn’t change. I tried this a few other times with some of the more complicated projects the book suggested (pretty sure composting was one of them) but the response was the same: nope, nope, nope. I don’t think my father was purposefully trying to squelch my budding environmentalism–he was never one to discourage me from anything unless he thought it was harmful to me. I think he was probably just overwhelmed with two young kids, a new career as a lawyer, and my handful of a mother.

This experience colored my view of environmentalism as I grew up: I wanted to help. I could do some small things (lights, running water taps), but the larger things (composting, comprehensive recycling, minimizing food waste) seemed too hard. It was something I wanted for myself but because of other things I dealt with on a daily basis, I did not have the wherewithal to make it a priority.

I hadn’t thought about this book in years. The memory of reading it came back to me as Basil began to set up the first compost heap in our garden this month. He checked out some books from the library, did some internet research, and now he has started one. He made it so easy.

When we first met, I remember being impressed with Basil’s commitment to a number of environmentally friendly practices. He recycled everything he could: even when we took long road trips, he would collect everything and keep it in a bag in the trunk until we came across some place with a recycling bin. He ALWAYS ate pesticide free food, even when it often meant planning meals in advance and packing food to take with. He bought everything possible second-hand (clothes, furniture, appliances) to reuse things as much as possible and prevent perfectly good things from being thrown in a landfill.

As you can tell from my gushing paragraph above, I found all these things insanely inspiring. When we started to date, Basil helped me recycle more and made me meals with organic food. He took my measurements and found perfectly good business dress clothes at thrift stores. When I was ready to run out and buy something I needed at Target (like an ironing board), he would ask for a chance to try to find it for me at a thrift store first. He almost always finds something as nice or nicer as I was thinking of buying (and for less money too).

To whomever is reading this, these things may seem simple. You may be 20 times, 100 times the earth friendly person I will ever be. But please understand: before Basil, these things seemed in the range of very difficult to impossible to me. These things did not seem possible for the life I thought I was destined to live. Then Basil showed up, and not only did these things happen, in no time at all, they felt routine. They felt easy.

But this effect didn’t just stop at the environmentalist goals in my life. Basil’s support permeated several things I had started to give up on. I started working out at least five days a week. I started sleeping eight hours regularly. I started writing again.

I would say it is magic, but that would be a misnomer. It is love.