Looking back and looking forward...so far

Hi, it's Jon this time. When I thought about taking on this challenge of doing something to improve our carbon footprint every day for 50 days, I wasn't sure what to expect.

I certainly don't think of ourselves as environmentalists. We recycled newspapers and tried to keep lights off (any of you in your late 30s remember Energy Ant from elementary school?!?) But we didn't do that much more.

That's why I was interested in this. To set up a regimen in order to try new things. To feel that good feeling that we were doing a bit to help our children's future, our country, the Earth, and to feel it tied to our Yiddishkeit. That was what made it extra special.

I didn't expect that we'd be able to do everything . . . and I was right. This past Shabbat we were supposed to use cloth napkins instead of paper. In the rush of getting ready, we reverted to our normal practice of using paper. We're a pretty informal family, although we love Shabbat dinner. We almost never use cloth napkins. So that was a slip.

But we were pretty good the rest of the week:

• even before this project, none of us left the water on while brushing our teeth (considering we're supposed to brush our teeth for 2-3 minutes and there's 4 of us, that's a lot of water we'd be wasting if we did leave the faucets on);
• we ate vegetarian Shabbat lunch (although we had a meat-filled bar-b-cue dinner on Sunday!);
• our fridge has a cold water spigot, so we don't have to waste water waiting for it to get cold;
• and we're pretty good about turning lights off. (Our son has dubbed himself "Captain Earth" and loves going around and making sure lights are turned off)
  

We do have some dimmer switches, so we'll work on turning the lights down a bit -- get that old Abe Lincoln by the candlelight vibe going.

How good have we been at keeping some of the earlier things going?

• We're definitely better at unplugging chargers when we're not using them, even though we forget some times;
• We're using natural sunlight and open windows as much as the weather has allowed;
• We're trying to use less and cooler water in the showers, though this is a real challenge;
• And I've started leaving the desktop computer on (in hibernation mode) and the monitor off, even though it's hard to break my habit of shutting everything down every night.
  

All in all, not too bad! We know we're not going to change the world, but if we can make a few of these practices part of our everyday life, even after Shavuot, maybe we'll set a better example for our kids, and help them to learn that being committed Jews is not just about following commandments given thousands of years ago. It's also about doing what we need to to make this world better now.

That's it for now

(I sure hope I don't have to break out the plunger after putting bricks in our toilet tanks tomorrow!!)