miletwo::network

My wife and I have been slaving away in the backyard of our new rented home for the last few weeks and now that sod and pavers are laid, it’s time for us to quickly get our raised bed garden planted before the springtime planting window escapes us.  With that in mind I’ve been ripe with anticipation to reap the benefits of my home garden and have begun planning the meals and dishes I plan to make with it.

Good God I’m starting to sound like some bleeding heart liberal tree hugger but damn it if sometimes they just make sense! Today I came across the web site called The Story of Stuff. Annie Leanord lays it all out and draws a very compelling picture of the state of consumerism and the world we live in. This is definitely worth a watch.

What’s better than hypermiling? What’s more fuel efficient than driving a gas/electric hybrid? How about a gas/human hybrid! That’s right folks, I’m building a gas power assisted bicycle to drag me along on my 10 mile daily commute. I’ve been hypermiling in the Four Runner these days and I have the MPG up to about 34 miles per gallon. But, for a $10 broken weedeater and a few miscellaneous parts from the local hardware store, I’ll be getting closer to 150+MPG in the very near future.

So, as many of you may have noticed lately I’ve been on somewhat of an environmentalist tear, ranting and raving about waste, consumerism, and green issues. The reason of course is because I love where I live, the earth. It’s awesome! God made it. It’s awesome. Did I mention it’s awesome? So anyway, when I read things that make sense from a “hey let’s use less and preserve God’s artwork for our kid’s kids to see” I like to point them out and if possible relate it to how we function as a church and how this makes use more relevant and credible to the rest of the world.

I’ve been pondering a greener lifestyle these days.  I’m not sure if it’s a result of making the jump to hippyspace (we just moved to Oregon) or if it’s merely a growing consideration for my pocketbook, but I’ve really started caring more about the environment.  Christians have for so long been fatcat consumers, exhibiting an elite sense of entitlement syndrome.  We rant about “those tree huggers” as if they’re the ones messing up our lives by opposing the legislation we care about when in fact we’re probably more guilty of carelessness than they are.  Sure, care about unborn babies and the protection of family, but don’t do it at the expense of everything else in the world.