my sacrifice for creation

for the past couple of years i have tried to practice good environmental stewardship. i'll admit that a key in my new focus was seeing the film An Inconvenient Truth. i will not argue the science of the film or global climate change or anything to do with Al Gore. none of these ultimately brought about my change. what did it was remembering the intricate beauty of creation and my belief that the God i worship somehow brought about all that exists. it occurred to me that i can't love God and trash what God created and called good. so i set out to care for creation in as many ways as i could. i rode my bike more, i started using my own bags at kroger and my own water bottles everywhere (even when i was yelled at by an employee at taco bell - where i refuse to eat again), i have even invented my own water efficient way of washing dishes, which i'll disclose later. but one thing i couldn't turn green was my lead foot...until now.

one of my church members told me about a guy in "Reader's Digest" who won an mpg contest by getting 150 mpg. i was pretty floored, especially when i read that the car he used wasn't a hybrid. his secret: coasting. basically driving as slow as possible and trying never to use the gas, or the brake for that matter. so i've started trying it - it's really too soon to tell if i can do this. i'm so used to getting frustrated with people who even drive the speed limit. now i find myself well under it. i suppose this will be the true test of my dedication to creation. of course, i could just scrap the car and bike everywhere.

here are a few other tips the article offered: 1. keep your car empty of everything you can. excess weight only drags you down. 2. keep the tires inflated well and the car regularly maintained. 3. don't use the air conditioner or roll the windows down (really tough, the guy in the article wears an ice vest!).

and now, as promised, my amazing dish washing method. of course, if you can afford some fancy dishwasher that conserves energy and water, go for it. but i can't, so i do this. for starters, you have to clean your plate as much as possible when you eat. you should do this anyway - starving kids in africa. then, start off with just a little water and dish soap in the sink, just enough to wash a few things (plates). let them soak for a few minutes and then sponge them or whatever. THEN rinse them off with the water filling up the sink even more. in other words, don't rinse them in the other side with the water leaving and being wasted. i know you might be like "eww, but the water will be all gross." no, it won't. the dish should be totally free of crud when you rinse. any crud will be in that water anyway - and if you've eaten everything on your plate, it shouldn't be a problem. so continue rinsing so that the water level rises, and continue adding larger dishes and letting them soak for a few minutes. by the end, you'll have a full sink of water, but you'll have conserved a lot. tell your friends.