A friend, who would like to remain anonymous, sent me an email that I got me thinking so much that I asked if it could be published as a blog.  Luckily, they said yes.

My only source of entertainment while driving (since my radio was stolen) is my mind, and that is dangerous enough, but when my thoughts shifted and I started thinking about the content of your Monday’s blog (Put a Stake in It) and I heard myself saying “Mmmh, I wonder what has happened to our generation?”, I almost slammed on my brakes.  Kudos to Gordon… Kudos to you…

What has happened?  My BFF said to me a few weeks ago, “Funny, I remember going over to your place and commenting on how cool it was that you recycled and now, I am the one who recycles.”  I don’t recycle anymore and I don’t turn off the lights behind me when I leave a room.  Have I gotten caught-up in this disposable society?  Is the fact that I live in a nomadic environment and the ease of having what I want, when I want it, destroy what was instilled in me from parents who were raised by depression era parents? I don’t hear inside my head anymore when I leave something on in a room that I am no longer in, “What do you think, I own stock in the electric company?” That would knee jerk me into turning around and turning the light or device off. 

I have plenty of devices that plain suck electricity and others that are vampiric in nature, and I allow them to feed off of an invisible energy source that I no longer place a value on.  Do we think this is a quick-fixed society and it will fix itself when the time comes? 

My grandmother taught me that I should always respect nature and give back to my planet since there is only one earth that is supporting us.  When did we stop?  When did I stop? 

Monday evening I was over at a friend’s house watching a show that he DVR-ed and we started chatting through the commercials knowing that we can at any moment speed up the evening by hitting the fast forward button but didn’t want to.  Two commercials grabbed my attention; one was the priceless commercial called, “Lessons” and the other was a Hybrid commercial with Greg Grunberg.  One is having a child teach his father about conservation and the other is installing green values into his family’s life so it becomes second nature. 

When did we stop?  Are we still teaching future generations or are they reminding us about the importance in what we have taken for granted?  I remember being timed to take five minutes showers, turning the water off while I brushed my teeth, turning off lights behind me, and unplugging certain devices after use not only because I come from a large family but mainly to keep cost down so my parents could give us all the advantages they did not have as children.  Did we get things too soon, too much and without a value being placed on them, that as we grew older we decided to give the next and the next generation too much, too fast without placing a value on it. 

Have we forgotten the real lessons behind our advantages?  What were the lessons; conserve so in time of need there will be plenty of resources to go around, a penny saved today is a penny earned tomorrow, help a friend in need because we never know if we need help? Is convenience the corruption that has erased these lessons from the past? 

Since we are in a borderline economic melt-down which can bring us back to the depression era, should we not be teaching what has been taught before but in a different way from how we were taught that it becomes a way of life, not a way to survive? I just unplugged a charger that has been in the wall for months.  It’s a start…

What my friend wrote got me thinking.  It is true – many of us have forgotten the lessons that we were taught as kids.  We are relearning them.  But going green is not new – it has been around for years – before I was born, and here I am, writing as if it was some new idea.  Gordon’s blog made me unplug a lot of items at my house.  Every charger is unplugged until needed.  Still trying to figure out the computers and TV and put the power strip switch in an area where I can turn it on and off easily.  Are you now remembering past lessons?  Have you made any changes?

Mark Viquesney