Figuring out how to live. Isn’t that what we’re all trying to do? To that point, here is some correspondence from my Facebook page to do with someone trying to figure out how to live in their own special circumstances:
To Colin and friends:
How do I become No Impact with an Autistic son? He eats good but I buy a lot of mixes (lke bread, pancakes, rice flour..etc) all of these come in little plastic bags. He is on a gluten free, casien free, egg free and soy free diet. I make mostly everything from scratch, but being no impact is …difficult. He is 5 and still no potty trained, so he is still in pull-ups. If there is anyone out there who can give me suggestions (I am trying to potty train, but he is non-verbal so it is a challange). Thank you–Kathy
Hi Kathy–
I don’t know anything about your situation but I will tell you a story. There was a woman from Egypt who wrote me and said that she ran an orphanage. She said that she had bought her 100 children presents and then she suddenly realized they were made from plastic. What should I do, she asked?
To me, No Impact has another meaning. It means to be gentle. To be kind. Sometimes, being gentle and kind has some environmental impact, but that is GOOD environmental impact.
There is no way to make no environmental impact at all. So to my way of thinking the question is, What are we making the environmental impact for? If the result outweighs the impact then, it’s worth it. So I thought the Egyptian foster mama and her kids should have a ball!
At the same time, probably the Egyptian woman wanted to demonstrate some solidarity with people who are trying to live No Impact. So the trick then, to my mind, is to find some way of doing it that didn’t cause the children problems–in some other part of her life.
Like me with Michelle, my wife. I can bang my head against the wall trying to get her to do all the eco things I want. Or I can just put more effort into areas where she does not resist.
Hope that helps. All the best to you and your son!
Colin