Commitment

We make a lot of commitments in life. There are some we choose to make - like partners, jobs, and volunteer activities. Others, we just accept with out thinking about them - like how car maintenance goes along with owning a car, or having a pet means caring for a pet. (I admit to being rather lax about the car thing, but that's another post entirely.) I got thinking about his topic on the way to work today. DH and I wear talking about recycling. He said he had trouble taking it seriously ever since he saw the garbage truck come one day and dump the recycle cans right on top of the dumpster stuff and mash it all together. What's the point? Why do we sort it just so the town can unsort it?

Obviously, not every community runs as ass backwards as ours, but he did raise a good question. we read in labels all the time, "50% post consumer recycled" and such. How much really gets recycled? Is the amount of recycled content in packaging and re purposing helping the environment in a real way? Lets say we compare the office paper produced today with that produced 20 years ago. If 50% of it is recycled material, then it would go to reason that we have at least "maintained" the number of trees cut down for office paper. We may not cut down less, but we have at least not cut down more than we did before. (I don't know if this is true - I'm just thinking in typing. ) These are the kinds of questions we talked about.

I suppose what I am saying is that I don't know how much I actually help the environment. But what I do can't hurt, right? I use fabric bags at the store - or ask for "no bag" if I am only buying one thing. We use energy efficient bulbs. I don't drive a gas guzzler. We keep our thermostat low in the winter, and don't use the air in the summer, if at all possible. Neither of us take long showers. We turn off the water while brushing our teeth. We do laundry and dish loads only when we have full ones. Everyone can do more, but every thing is something. So, this Earth Day, I'm going to continue to muse over the word "commitment" and what it means to me, my future, and future generations.

What does this have to do with knitting? Good question, considering I can't seem to make a commitment to any one project. The Endpaper mitts are rolling along. I am almost through the arm of #2. Last night I got all kinds of itchy to wind up the yarn for another blanket. Then I couldn't keep from casting on. "I'll only do a little, just to get it started." Famous last words.

Technically, I did only do 35 rows, so it wasn't too much. The thing is, if I could have a made a commitment to the mitts, I could have gotten through the thumb increases. The Mitts could be finished by Wednesday. Instead, they'll feel all neglected because I'm working on something else. Knitter's Guilt.