Compost

For reasons that don’t really require explaining, we have to take down our wonderful wooden compost that my husband made. It’s wonderful and open and great, not smelly and quickly making beautiful soil. Let me add that it never has any meat or grain, so it doesn’t attract vermin. Basically, where we live there have been complaints that it’s unsightly (meanwhile, it’s in the back, close to our house, not where almost anyone would see it). It’s “garbage.” No it’s not. So, we have to change the type of composter we’re using. We have no chioce. Fine. My mother-in-law is being kind enough to buy it but it 1) will be made of plastic, and 2) is small and 3) must be shipped via trucks that burn fossil fuels and 4) I’m sure is constructed in China by almost slave labor. This, of course, upsets me and makes me feel sort of thwarted. Being part of a community is important, but I want to be surrounded by those who support our way of life. We also were given a bag of shit about having a sandbox that may have been left w/o its top on once or twice and about storing some small play things for my son on our porch. It really upset us.

I also am buying a very nice and expensive bike soon, for ecological and fitness reasons. But I wonder if it was made in China? How sustainable are the parts and production for making bikes?

I know, this is a lot of bleeding heart liberal guilt, but I think it’s very important to pay attention to how decisions (small and large) end up resonating in the world. I don’t want my hoity-toity green living to contribute to suffering in China and Southern Africa where these things are made and where the metals and things are mined.