I've decided to blog my experience going without plastic this Lent, as it will likely keep me honest and give some structure to this experience. Maybe I've been over-inspired by watching the movie "Julie and Julia," but, oh well. I've been seriously reflecting over the past 6 months on the dependency my life has on plastic - a substance which requires oil for production. Seriously, have you ever thought how much your life would change if you didn't have any plastic? The laptop I'm using right now to type has a plastic keyboard, screen, etc. My refrigerator uses plastic, everything I use to preserve food (plastic baggies, tupperware, etc.) is plastic, my atm/debit card is made of plastic, and so is my toothbrush. Yeah, pretty much everything that's important.
For me, the purpose of Lent is to add or take away something which, upon desiring to engage in that activity (or being "forced" to add it) one is reminded of God's presence in one's life. Lent is where you substitute things like giving up cheese (last year's sacrifice) for a type of rubber band around your wrist that you snap to remind yourself of something. So, because my life is so dependent on plastic (Lent is also about analyzing our routines and being mindful of the things that unconsciously are so woven into our everyday lives) and because the Bible tells us to be stewards of the earth and plastic is, I suspect, not very good for the earth, and because I think this will be interesting, I am giving up plastic.
I haven't set the rules for myself completely yet, but I think there are a few ground rules:
1.) I should not buy anything that is made of plastic.
2.) I should minimize my use of plastic things that I already own - so no plastic ziploc bags, not plastic storage containers, etc.
So, of course, I'm thinking already about having to give up using my SmarTrip card, which saves me money when riding the metro (a paper fare card makes you pay 25-50 cents more per trip). In any event, this first week is going to be more focused on taking an inventory of my life and my plastic dependence.
Ok, that is enough for Ash Wednesday. Until tomorrow, cogitate on this factoid from a great website my awesome boyfriend alerted me to www.nonplasticearth.org:
"Given the fact that plastic takes roughly a million years to decompose, it’s safe to say that every piece ever manufactured is still around today."
