“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
– Robert Swan, Author

So yesterday I was having a conversation about my blog. “What is the point of it?” someone asked. “Is it a journal? Of is it supposed to be more like a newspaper column?”

Those happen to be great questions; and the answer is, “Yes!” That would be yes on both counts.

I actually was a newspaper columnist for several years. Getting to facilitate a week-by-week conversation with thousands of folk – around Brandon as well as much of Tampa – was in many ways a dream gig. When things happened, people knew they could count on my response via the column, via Op-Ed pieces and by the occasional commentary contribution in the Sunday paper. I really enjoyed the opportunity and it did a lot to help me develop the writing “voice” I have today.

But, also yes, this blog thing is very much a daily journal. We were talking with friends over dinner Thursday evening, about the dairies many people used to keep a hundred years ago and more. Sometimes it was just a note about the weather, other times something more consequential. But it was a daily discipline.

This series of posts is very much a day by day historical account, a journal of this life. But I try to write it in the style of a column.

Yesterday:

Friday, Rebekah and I headed toward Wake Forest with the intention of doing mega amounts of yard work and some organizing in the garage. By the time we reached Rocky Mount, however, it was raining steadily. Then, when we rolled into North Raleigh for a Trader Joe’s pick up, the rain had escalated to torrential.

So much for the yard work. But we made some good progress in the garage and I did make a trip to Goodwill. Then, later, I drove a completely overstuffed SUV to the county’s recycling facility.

Getting rid of things rather than hauling them to Tarboro is an extremely satisfying experience!

This particular run was all cardboard. I am blown away by just how much packing material we have in the garage. Yes, I took it to recycling rather than the dump, but I have also made probably ten visits to Home Depot to replace the cardboard with literally hundreds of dollars of new boxes for packing that will likely end up making the same trip to recycling after we move into the “new” house.

Stuff. So much Stuff. I am embarrassed at how much we have, even more embarrassed when I see how much of it we simply do not need, and mortified that we are still purchasing new things that are destined to be garbage in a matter of weeks.

They say awareness is the first step toward change. I guess we will see about that!