Have you noticed that the yuppie-friendly corporations are preaching a lot these days? Most frequently in all caps, block print, presumably to get your attention. For example:
A little bit preachy, mostly informative, and making the consumer feel good about themselves for recycling. Or, on the same bag:
A slightly more pointed reminder of plastic bags floating in the middle of the ocean and trapping innocent fish and birds across the board. Upping the guilt quotient quite a bit.
These days, I have one particular all caps word staring at me more than I would like to admit:
Um, no, I’m really not. I am a pioneer in using way too many recycled cups. And YOU are making me feel darn guilty about it, Mr. Recycled Cup. I don’t particularly appreciate that.
My ongoing problem reared its ugly head when I brought a bag that used to be a plastic bottle home from work full of pioneering recycled cups to re-recycle. And then I noticed how many of them there were. Let me rephrase: I work three days a week in my office. And in the course of about a month and a half, I bought beverages in this many cups:
Twenty-one. That’s not counting the ones I drank in the car, or got on the weekend, or sucked down while on vacation because I got 6 hours of sleep the night before, or treated myself after dropping off little d at school on my work from home days. That’s *only* the ones I drank at work and brought home to recycle.
It’s a good visual representation of my stress levels this month, and appalls me that I have such a crutch. But, I’m so dependent on it that I need to wean myself off now – caffeine-withdrawal headaches are once again part of my vocabulary.
Thankfully, I don’t have any major things planned for the rest of the summer, other than cleaning up the house, enjoying Big D, little d, and miss poopypants, and remembering what I like to do. What makes me tick. What makes me happy and rested and not overly bitchy. It certainly isn’t caffeine.
In the meantime, I’ll be putting $86.52 into the guilt fund to remind myself that I shouldn’t be able to make a pyramid out of my paper cups anymore. I don’t think I got enough pleasure out of that pyramid to make it worth $86.52 of my time and energy.
keeping excess in check, one thing at a time 