Our Energy Experiment....

Wow. This is a gigantic picture but just thought I'd provide a visual aid. This past weekend, we switched all of our light bulbs out in our apartment to these CFL light bulbs. We've heard that if you do this all at once, the decrease on your energy bill pays for the investment within a few weeks. Now, for our tiny place (12 light bulbs total including our two tiny bedside lamps) we realize that this might take a bit longer, but we will let you all know how it works out.

About going green... Jeremy and I are a divided household on this one. He calls it a "bunch of crap." I call some of it being good stewardship. I guess that makes for a good middle ground in the things that we choose to do. For example, we stopped having our groceries bagged in paper or plastic and now haul around these fashionable things:
And, my most recent experiment has been recycling our paper and coke cans and buying fair trade coffee. Now, Jeremy is pro shopping bags because they carry way more especially when you live on public transportation and have to haul bags up to the fourth floor. And, he is also pro-light bulb switching because it saves money.

But, you see....this is a slippery slope. First it is shopping bags and fair trade coffee. Then, there is organic cotton clothing and organic cotton toys and fair trade diamonds and sugar, organic vegetables, and free range chicken, and cage free eggs, and.....well you get my point. You could go on forever! In my mind, a line past responsible living is eventually crossed. I begin to think about issues of privilege. I mean, the poor person in Dorchester or Roxbury or Lynn or in the apartment next door (not trying to say all people in those neighborhoods are "poor") can't afford these things. We participate in some of these things because we can afford to not just out of convenience. When is it right for me to have these things when I know that my neighbor across the town is denied access to these things for monetary reasons or just out of lack of choice? (In case you weren't aware....grocery stores in poor neighborhoods don't even carry a choice between all these products. Cheap and terrible quality is all that is available). Honestly, it seems that some of these things just exist to make wealthy white people feel better about their lives of extreme consumption. Hmm.... an interesting struggle. Any thoughts?

And, although not everyone who reads our blog is a Christian, that is where all decisions made in my life begin. For the most part, Christians don't care enough about these sorts of things (responsible living, issues of privelege).... and that is a tragically true statement. Or, on the other extreme they care TOO much. I'm not trying to say that I'm enlightened on the issue, but rather struggling for a balance. It is hard to find a balance on an issue that is wrapped up in issues of privilege, materialism and guilt. In the same way that one can become enslaved to their riches, one can become enslaved to responsible living! Where I come to is that if these changes towards responsible living or simplistic living (which for me is another offshoot of this same topic that I think about) aren't rooted in love, they are meaningless (1 Cor. 13:3). I could sell all my possessions, buy all the fair trade coffee and sugar in the world.... and without love it is nothing. And not that I find any special act of love in my Trader Joe's and Shaw's recycling bag, but starting down this road bring up so many issues to ponder.

This week will be an exciting week in the Reddin household. Ben (Jeremy's brother) and two friends will be in later this afternoon, and our friends TJ and Laura will be in later this week. Jeremy promises that he has a blog running around in his head....just don't expect it while our visitors are in this week.