Dinner and a Show

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of having dinner with my daughter and her new husband.  This is nothing new.  What was new, was the evening’s entertainment.  Before and after dinner we sat out in the backyard and watched her chickens.  Now before you take a big yawn, and leave this post, hear me out.  I don’t know if I have crossed over into what is officially a “redneck” or just joined what two thirds of rest of the world already is doing, but I found it interesting, amusing, scary at times, peaceful, insightful and refreshing.

My daughter in her quest to eat more healthily has acquired some chickens for eggs.  They have quickly become pets and could never in a million years be considered for anything else but egg producing friends.  She recently lost two of her hens to a predator and she describes that day as “one of the worst five days of her life”.  We love what she loves and recently took care of them while she was out of town.  Now one of them has a hurt leg and we were speculating what was wrong and how to treat it while dinner cooked.

To watch these fowl scratch for bugs, run at full speed because they got spooked and then have the whole flock join in, jump in my lap and hear me scream like a ninny was a hoot.  Chickens are funny.  They bully each other, don’t seem to have a lick of sense and try to keep all the goods to themselves.  Kind of like humans.  Hmmmmm….

There were times when we would just watch the chickens peck and scratch, working as natural pesticides, eating bugs, fertilizing the soil and there were quiet comfortable silences.  Just the wind in the trees and the sound of the birds.  No need for music or to fill it up with ” so what do you think about…?” 

It was a good evening of good food, good wine, good company and a good show.

Stop the Madness!

Way too much!

On a recent venture to the store to buy toothpaste for my husband, I was staggered by the choices at my disposal.  I counted sixteen different kinds of toothpaste in the brand he had requested.  Everything from Cinnamon, Mint, Tarter control, sensitive protection, whitening pro-health, enamel strengthening, and so on.  Now I am glad that I have all my teeth at the age of 55, but I seriously doubt that it is because of cinnamon being added to toothpaste.  Besides, my husband just wanted plain Crest.  Not mint Crest, not cinnamon Crest, not tarter control Crest, just plain Crest.  It took me ten minutes to find what I wanted.

While in the “toothpaste aisle, I became trapped by a man and his partner and their super sized cart looking for “just the right deodorant”.  I counted no less than twenty two times the man open the cap of a deodorant, sniffed and replaced the cap until he found the “right” fragrance.  “Mmmmmm, I just love this Ocean Breeze Mist”, he said to his wife/girlfriend.  “Mmmmmm, your’e right, it is nice, she cooed”.  At that point Iwas ready to scream, “It’s freaking deodorant! It’s not French perfume!”  I cound’t get by and I coundn’t stop listening and watching; sort of like not wanting to be involved in watching a food eating contest- you’re grossed out, but can’t turn away at the same time.  All I could think of was 1: all the empty plastic containers from deodorants in land fills, 2: that Ocean Breeze Mist probably doesn’t smell anything like what I think of when I think of Ocean breeze mist and 3: if the man wanted to smell Ocean Breeze mist, he should MOVE!

How did we get to this point?  We have more choices for soap, shampoo, makeup, pet food, than we can count.  We are a nation of consumers.  I admit it.  I love my nail polish.  I love to wash my hair.  But do I need wheat protein or peppermint in my shampoo?  I think not.  Just something to get my hair clean, thank you.  Same thing with soap.  Wash your pits everyday and you won’t need deodant. 

I was reminded of the scene from an old Robin Williams movie, “Moscow on the Hudson”  of an Russian musician that defects to America and in one scene faints in a grocery store when overwhelmed by the choices he presented with.  I was just about to do the same. 

There is a movement to simplify, to use less.  I hope that more will people will catch on.  I don’t want the makers of toothpaste and other products  to lose work, but perhaps with their ingenuity, they can  work on things we really need,  like less expensive solar panels, reclaiming water and more.  Please don’t take me as a high and mighty sack cloth wheat grass drinking chick.  I’m not.  But the madness has to stop.  When we have 16 kinds of toothpaste in one brand alone, that’s too much.  When we have disposable “heads” on toilet brushes that “flush away”, because it’s too icky to keep a toilet brush in your bathroom, that’s too much.  Although for years, disposable diapers have been touted as easier on the environment, ie, less water used, phosphates , etc, recent research has come to light that it is estimated that roughly 5 million tons of untreated waste and a total of 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills annually. It takes around 80,000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture the disposable diapers for American babies alone.  Although some disposables are said to be biodegradable; in order for these diapers to decompose, they must be exposed to air (oxygen) and sun.  Since this is highly unlikely, it can take several hundred years for the decomposition of disposables to take place, with some of the plastic material never decomposing. 

Americans needs to get a grip!  We have lost touch with what it is to be human.  We eat, we breath, we have bad breath, we poop and we can deal with it.  We can use soap and water and survive.  Other countries have been doing it for centuries and seem to be okay.  Let’s give it a try.

Step Away and try a bath!