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Join the Green Generation: Get in touch with your youthful zeal

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By Sharon Short, Contributing Writer 5:15 PM Friday, April 17, 2009

Earth Day is just two days away.

You’d think I’d be better prepared to honor the day. That I could write a column that either (a) gave compelling, passionate homage to Mother Nature or (b) provided easy-to-follow tips about things such as recycling.

After all, waaaay back in high school, during a brief stint on the speech team, I passionately wrote a fervent speech about the environment and why it was so important to protect it — about how we weren’t doing a very good job of taking care of the environment and why we really should.

Then I delivered it with great zeal.

The judges found it “interesting.” (That was when I learned that “interesting” is not necessarily a compliment.) My fellow speech team members found it “weird.” (Already knew that wasn’t a compliment.)

Alas, if only I’d been prescient and known that “An Inconvenient Truth” was in my foggy/smoggy future, I could have reassured myself that I was simply avant garde. Never mind that Earth Day is coming up on its 40th year and had been around for quite a while by the time I gave that speech.

It takes a while for new ideas to become commonly accepted ideas.

Since then, I’ve tried to make a point of (a) enjoying the bounty of Mother Nature and (b) doing things like recycling.

But it is not as easy as it once seemed. And it’s not as easy to muster zeal as it was in my youth.

I have great intentions. For example, I want to go hiking in our area’s wonderful MetroParks system. I tell myself that somehow I will find a way to hike every weekend. But then, most weekends, I instead find myself running errands. In my car. I love hiking, but I don’t get to do it nearly often enough.

As far as personal efforts to take care of nature, I drive a very fuel-efficient car. I’m blessed to live in a neighborhood where I can walk to the post office and restaurants. Recycling paper, glass, plastics and metals has been a habit of ours for decades now.

Still, I could do more.

And I’m reminded of that every now and then by my kids.

“Hey, leave some for the fishes!” they say, if I leave the tap running too long while rinsing dishes.

“Why are we throwing away this food waste? Shouldn’t we compost it?” they ask.

And they say it with the same fervor, the same “isn’t this obvious, why don’t you get it?” zeal I’m sure I used to deliver my speech so many years ago.

Then again, my kids and their peers are part of what some pundits are already dubbing the Green Generation. So caring about the earth is no longer weird.

And, yes, I find their suggestions ... interesting. But not in a noncomplimentary way. In an isn’t-it-marvelous-young-people-care-so-much way.

Still, I doubt I’ll start a compost pile this Earth Day.

Instead, I will make an effort to develop better water-saving habits.

And who knows, I might even take a hike in a park. After all, enjoying nature — and taking care of it — is not just for weekends. Or, as important as the day is to remind us of the value of our environment, just for Earth Day. It’s for every day!

Hey, sounds like I retained my youthful zeal for Mother Earth after all!

Sharon Short’s column runs Monday in Life. Send e-mail to sharonshort@sharonshort.com.

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