So my dogs are outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh air while I’m cleaning up the house after my mad weekend alone painting and making collages and listening to loud music and any number of other fun things while the boys were off to visit with his family and go to the Ren Faire in Apache Junction.
And suddenly I had this thought, about the dogs being so comfortable with dirt and mess and never feeling the need to clean any of it up.
The terrible thing about having opposable thumbs and a big brain is this need to constantly use them instead of simply enjoying ourselves.
But then, my kids are comfortable with mess as well, and they have opposable thumbs and big brains, too. I guess I just never guilt tripped them enough into cleaning things up, the way my mom did to me.
Hmmm.
I always cleaned up after the parties I had as a teenager while my parents were away, and never got caught except for the one time they came home and found three hundred beer cans in the storage room, waiting to be recycled.
Yeah, I would’ve felt guilty about not recycling them, too.
Stoopid guilt.
2 Responses
“recycle guilt” made me smile…think you’re on to something. if we can only figure out how to package it,
Hmm, perhaps you’re right, Naomi. They seem to be doing it lately selling the canvas and recycled plastic bags at the stores – I think California will be legislating to eliminate plastic store bags in the near future, since every store here seems to be selling these alternatives.
Remember, I grew up as a 70s kid – there was SERIOUS guilt about not recycling then. My parents were very cool about all those beer cans, though. They didn’t get mad or anything. Just made me take care of recycling them, which was kind of fun, then. We had “The Golden Goat” that ate cans and gave you money. Now the city here has closed our local recycling centers and made it difficult to recycle except via the city collection bins – they want the recycling credits for themselves to offset the trash collection costs. They do give us a pretty good deal for trash collection though, so can’t complain too much about it. But I really wish they hadn’t closed the local recycling center. I always gave the money to the kids for doing the work of smashing the cans and they enjoyed that.