Yesterday was Earth Day. I must admit I am not an avid follower of various Days that people celebrate. Unless it has to do with my religion but that is another story.

Over the past few weeks, Child of the Corn II has been (sort of) stacking  discarded items. Actually, she was not stacking them, she just keeps them instead of putting them in the bin. She screamed each time I pick them up and head towards the refuse container. Turned out, she was collecting them for Earth Day. I asked her what she intended to do with these things and she mumbled something about recycling them for Earth Day. Apparently her class has been preparing for Earth Day and she was doing her part.

Don’t get me wrong, I like that children are being taught to respect the earth, recycle and so on. Sometimes, however, recycling discarded items are just not possible. We live in the country and there is no such thing as a recycling centre. I am sure there is one here somewhere – I just haven’t bothered to check. That said, we are not offered to have certain items sent to recycling section or not. EVERYTHING goes to the same place. The garbage people come once a week and we only use one type of container. That’s it.

I am not losing sleep over it, though.

We have a dishwasher but we only use it once or twice a year. Why? We are saving water and electricity. You may argue we use more water washing dishes by hand. (Hey, I am sure SOMEONE will come here and provide the appropriate links to substantiate their claim.) I just prefer to use as little electricity as possible. If I run the tap to wash my dishes by hand and rely on the sunshine coming into my kitchen window, I am saving electricity. Correct?

Many people who know me by now realise that I seldom (if ever) run the air-conditioner. I don’t even turn on the A/C while I am driving around in my car. The reason? Air-conditioners tend to keep you dry (as opposed to breezes and the fan) and being dry means you need to moisturise artificially. That is not to say I do not buy lotions and potions. Far from it. The thing is, not only am I using MORE lotions and potions, I am also spending more money on electricity to run the air-conditioner. If everyone within the grid turn on their air-conditioner all day and all night in the summertime, can you imagine what happens?

Yes, opening the windows invite dust into the house. Unless you are terribly allergic to a bit of dust, it isn’t going to kill you. You need the exercise dusting your furnitures anyway. Right?

I think recycling is great. Teaching kids about it is fantastic. However, can we also teach our kids to save everything in general? Such as eating last night’s leftovers for breakfast or lunch instead of throwing them away? (Unless you are composting them. In that case, carry on) We generally give babies baths simply because they cannot stand up. However, as soon as they are able to stand up straight and hold on to something, can we teach them to take short showers instead to save water?

Use and re-use envelopes that come in the mail instead of spending money to buy those cute notepads to scribble stupid notes that you will lose anyway? Obviously, you use the back of the envelope to jot down little notes for that one time use and when you are done with it, you shred it and send the shredded envelopes along with shredded documents etc to the local animal shelter. OR use the shredded papers to make an art project or something. Huh?

I just sometimes wonder if people “celebrate” Earth Day really understand that it is not a once year thing. It is a lifelong commitment. Much like celebrating Valentine’s Day and such like.

I mean, once a year, you get hyped about this special day or that special day and then the rest of the year, you don’t think about it. You don’t even care. What is the point, really?