My Eco-Friendly Father

By Sarah Minick

09/16/2009

My father taught me to be eco-friendly before that word was fashionable. For the past 45 years, I've watched him turn off lights when he leaves a room, turn off the water while he brushes his teeth, and turn off his car if there is a long wait. He wears clothes an extra day to conserve water and electricity, and he always tinkers with run-down lawnmowers until they once again purr. Not everyone is so fortunate to have an eco-friendly dad, but everyone can learn how to help save the planet we call home.

Recently I read the "Healthy Life" column in Health Magazine which interviewed several celebrities including Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights), Debra Messing (The Starter Wife), and Jane Kaczmarek (Raising the Bar) about the steps they are taking to protect our planet. Shockingly many of them are doing the same things that my father has been doing for 85 years. Has our eco-friendly movement not had more of an impact than that?

One celebrity comments, "I turn off the water when I'm shaving my legs or brushing my teeth. I do what I can every day, but I don't obsess." Listen, honey, it's time to obsess. Our threatened planet and all of its natural beauty deserves our obsession. Turning off the water while brushing your teeth is great, but why not take it a step further? Consider turning off the water in the shower while lathering up.

Not long ago I was on a retreat and one night at dinner the subject of water conservation arose. One lady claimed that it was usually too cold to jump into the shower without preheating the entire bathroom first. She explained that at shower time, she regularly turned on the hot spigot and let it run until the whole bathroom turned very warm and steamy. By her tone, I could tell she knew this was indeed an ecologically wrong idea, but she was not too embarrassed to tell us.

First off, I can only imagine the size of her water heater. Mine couldn't do that and offer me any leftover warm water for a shower. Second, I'm glad I don't pay her water or heat bill. Third, I'm happy my dad wasn't there because he would have been appalled at her waste of our natural resources.

Another celebrity in the Health Magazine article states, "I think if I turn my dryer off a little more frequently that would be awfully helpful." Again, Ms. Celebrity, it's time to do more. Why not turn that dryer off completely? The sun and wind do miraculous things with wet laundry if only we let them. A simple clothesline is an ingenious tool when it comes to eco-friendliness. I remember as a child when my father strung a laundry line in our backyard between two trees, and then my mother used it often. I would watch the white sheets flapping crisply in the wind while I played on my tire swing. By the end of the afternoon, the sheets would be dry, no electricity consumed.

Finally a different actress says she "really want(s) to buy a Kindle. It holds hundreds of novels in its memory." How long will she be fascinated with her Kindle, I wonder, and what will happen in a year or so after she becomes tired of it, or a newer model sparks her eye, or her old one breaks? Many people believe we can buy, use, and throw away with no consequences. We can't. But there is a magical place that reuses and reuses: the public library where books are shared by many people over and over again.

Years ago, my dad and mom gathered my brother and me up and took us to the public library every Sunday afternoon where we'd each check out several books and then return them the next week. We did this so often that I thought every family in America spent Sunday afternoons browsing books at the library. At that time I thought it was a normal and typical family activity, but today it could be called eco-friendly and Earth-wise.

My father grew up in the 1920s and 1930s. Back then folks did things like save and reuse wrapping paper or wear shoes until the soles wore out because they had no other choice. Some people today might tell me that we don't have to live like that because the world has modernized and the economy has improved. I disagree. We still have no other choice. If we want my father's grandsons and all the grandchildren on Earth to grow up in a healthy world and celebrate their own Father's Days, we need to reconsider these many lessons learned from my eco-friendly dad.