Save (a little bit of) the World

Many years ago when I had more time to be aware, I discovered a book called “the Culture of Make Believe” by Derrick Jensen. It was a horrific tome full of meticulous details and passionate discourse on the history of hate and the turning of a blind eye. It recounted the effects of everything from arms dealing to consumer indulgence in slave labor chocolate. It pointed a long and fearsome finger and implicated everyone, even the middle class suburban housewife in the wholesale destruction of humanity.

I was shocked and moved profoundly. I carried a dog eared and well-worn copy around with me and would tearfully open it and read to anyone who would listen, particularly shoppers at Walmart and unsuspecting friends that dropped by for coffee (coffee picked by small brown child hands ). My teenage daughter remembers it as a time when I made her play with wooden toys and she couldn’t drink Nestle’s chocolate milk. I was indulged to an extent, but certain information crossed a line, some of it was too terrible to hear and process, most of it was just asking for us to give up something we liked too much.

We do not like the truth. It is, as has been said, inconvenient. And so over time They-That- Must-Promote-Things have learned to give us sound bites and small doses so that we can muddle through and make a few small attempts to change things all while feeling good about ourselves.

Saving the earth sounds like an enormous task to me, impossible really to comprehend. I am only one of a several, several billion people, another grain of sand. What does it mean to someone starving in Darfur that I recycle my Pepsi can? Who am I saving the world for exactly… and is there something more important I could be doing?

Don’t misunderstand, there are many good reasons for going green, not the least of which is improving the environment that our children live in. But the most important implication in the green movement seems to me to be an acceptance of responsibility.

Because we are well fed, healthy, and relatively free and wealthy Americans (there are countries where food stamps seem like wealth), we are able to make choices, choices that improve the quality of our life, our neighbors life, and make the air and water and land a little healthier. But perhaps the real revolution taking place in the green movement is that we are learning to care about something beyond ourselves , teaching our children to care, to act, to try and make a difference no matter what the odds.

Going green is an investment in each other and in the future, both of which we are really beginning to believe in. If we can learn to respect our own piece of the world we may be able to learn to care for other parts of it as well.

What it really means to “go green”:

Where’d you get that dress!?

Those clothes on your back, the latest togs from Old Navy, Gap, Hot topic, Target. Someone grew those fibers and someone else made them into a garment. Frequently those someones are people whose responsibilities, if they were American, would include doing their homework and getting enough sleep at night. Sometimes they work alongside their mothers who are also making pennies a day. The land that cotton is grown on has been farmed to the hilt and is chock full of pesticides which the pickers come in contact with every day of their lives. Beyond the humanitarian issue lies the fact that importing foreign cheaply made goods into our country also requires fossil fuels.

Guilty Pleasures

The United States is one of the largest importers of cocoa, coffee, and tea in the world. To meet the demands of the first world, young boys from the ages of twelve are stolen from their homes by slave traders and sold to farmers in places such as the Ivory Coast of Africa. They work day and night under inhumane conditions. The majority of our cocoa and coffee products in this country have their origins in slave labor. That’s slave labor…no pay. Suddenly smores don’t seem quite so wonderful.

Timber!

Most of us know that forests are an important source of biodiversity. They offer undiscovered foods, medicines and other useful natural chemicals are present in these ecosystems. Forests are the habitat for millions of organisms, many of which are unknown to science. A fortune lies untapped in these places, not to mention many creatures under threat of extinction. Not everyone thinks of the fact that many native cultures have lived sustainably off of these ecosystems for thousands of years. Now they are lured by the chance to make some quick cash. They are selling off their culture and their livelihood for a pittance. Old growth forests take many lifetimes to reach maturity. What is given away cannot be retrieved in this lifetime and will alter the course of entire cultures.

Not a drop to drink.

There is a worldwide shortage of water. Only 6% of the world’s water is usable for drinking and agriculture and that must supply 100% of the population. 70% of that fresh water is used for growing crops and raising livestock. As more people in emerging economies gain middle-class lifestyles, they will consume more milk, eggs, chicken and beef, "which is much more water-intensive than the simpler diets they are replacing." About 5 million people die each year from poor drinking water, poor sanitation, or a dirty home environment -- often resulting from water shortage.

Isn’t that enough?

There are a hundred more problems and a hundred more after that. The average American consuming produce shipped from distant destinations across the world ingests about two gallons of pesticide a year.

Lead batteries and other refuse we put into landfills seeps into our groundwater poisoning our children, other garbage is carried out to sea and finds its way onto beaches across the planet.

Mining and metal processing to meet consumer demand of goods (uranium for medical needs, metals for factories)has some of the worst affects on people and the planet, resulting in toxic waste that infiltrates our air land and water and those workers and their families that live near it.

Urban air pollution indoors and out has caused an increase in asthma, allergies and many other respiratory diseases.

These problems affect everyone everywhere, in this country and in others we can only imagine. Children are affected more deeply by pollution than adults. They are smaller and more physiologically susceptible to environmental risks. Children only make up 10% of the world’s population though over 40% of the global burden of disease falls on them.

It is easy to put your recycling out at the curb and change to compact fluorescent light bulbs, it is more difficult to give up some of your favorite guilty pleasures. You may tell yourself that the Hershey bar in your hands was harvested by a child laborer but somehow that doesn’t seem real. Going green is so much more than just buying organic. It is a recognition of the effect we all have on each other, on our position on the great web of life that wraps around this planet.

Those of us that can make choices shoulder the burden of making the right ones. This is the hardest part of the truth. What you’re doing right now could be hurting someone small and helpless somewhere right now. Learn to do the right thing. Teach your children well. Teach them to be activists and not victims so that they can take that lesson out into the larger world, a world that we are saving one small part at a time.

What you really can do to help.

Knowledge is power. Get on the internet, go to the library, find out what is really going on in the world.

Buy organic whenever possible, clothes, toys, food. Large inexpensive chain stores now carry very affordable green options.

Look for items that are made locally or in this country, that helps the environment and the economy.

If you are building, or buying furniture look for items that are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) approved using sustainable practices. Bamboo flooring and reclaimed woods are wonderful alternatives to old growth woods such as oak.

For a list of slavery free chocolates (such as Newman’s Own) go to http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id+62

Reduce Reuse Recycle. Everything. Don’t buy what you don’t need. Be a wise consumer.

Do something, anything; one small change can (literally) make a world of difference.

For more ideas and information check out these sources:

How to go green- http://www.worldwatch.org/resources/go_green_save_green

World pollution report- http://www.worstpolluted.org/

Eco options for children- http://www.inhabitatshop.com/kids-baby/

Water Shortage- http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/zarticles/322watershortage.html

Stop chocolate slavery- http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/index.html

Forest Stewardship Council- http://www.fscus.org/

Air pollution- http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/pollution-main.html

Finds

Sleep Tight.
Not so scary monster to snuggle with...no spray required. Available at FAO Schwartz and elsewhere www.fao.com





Nothing scary in a closet like this...for you or your child.
Reversible bunk bed from IKEA...It's a bunk bed OR a loft bed. www.ikea.com




This is one the most beautiful co-sleepers we have ever come across. Modern, sustainable, and safe. The Culla Belly from www.coochicoos.com






Everyone knows that monsters are afraid of the light. The best solution for any child is a night light. These are some of the best we've ever seen. They are cool to the touch, durable, and portable. So your child can grab this when they make a trip down the hall for the potty or a glass of water.
Tyke Light from Mobi. Get it at many retailers or from www.getmobi.com


Hygge Interiors can make a child's room that will give both you and your child a good night's sleep. Let us help. hyggeinteriors.com

How to save on therapy bills.

I am afraid of clowns. The reason I am afraid is because my stepmother loved me.

Before I was afraid of clowns I was afraid of the dark. So my stepmother, (the same one that used to tape love notes about my unending beauty on the bathroom mirror during my awkward braces- spots-lanky hair-adolescence) set herself on a mission to bring cheer and a good night's sleep to my bed room. She slung rainbows everywhere and googley-eyed stuffies, and hung crystals in the window so that they would wake me in the morning with dancing colors.

I had recently broken my parent's edict about watching scary movies and snuck in a few in at a friend's house, including one in which a mummy went on a hunt for the missing crystals stolen from its tomb. He would rip them from the throats of his unsuspecting victims and then tear their heads off. At night, in the dark, my crystals hung like bait beneath the rainbow curtains.

Send in the Clowns.

My stepmother then bought a long legged clown and placed it on the windowsill where it sat observing me with knowing beady glass eyes. It watched my every last move. After several nights I stuck it on a shelf in the closet. The next morning when I opened the doors to get dressed the clown had changed positions. I suspected that my imagination was at work. But the same thing continued for days. It was a horrifying little game. I would place it in a very particular position and in the morning eek!, it would be in a completely different one. I lay away at night barely moving, pillows lined up on either side of me, eyes just barely peeping out...listening for the rustle of the clown moving in my closet...the heavy thud of mummy's feet coming up the drive.

Of course it was my stepmother moving the clown around thinking she was delighting me and that I felt safe and loved and slept like a baby wrapped in clouds and rainbows. Eventually I stuffed the toy deep deep in my closet and didn't bring it up until my late teens when something reminded me. I can still manipulate her into just about anything by bringing this up.

And that was just when I was eight.

The nighttime can be a long scary journey for a child and parents often unwittingly, with the best of intentions, make it worse. We think we know what we are doing, and sometimes we do, but there is so much information out there and most of it is conflicting. For my own children I was a big proponent of Monster Spray...you know, you fill a spray bottle or label an aerosol can with the words MONSTER SPRAY and leave your child armed to do battle (after a few sprays into the corners yourself just as a preventative measure). I just read an article saying that monster spray is a terrible thing...enforcing your child's belief in monsters by indicating that you believe in them too. Ugh.

Still, I am a believer in empowerment and I, like most children, know that being told that monsters don't exist don't exactly make it so.

Once long ago we were little more than animals huddling around fires in caves. In the dark things roamed that wanted to eat you. The only protection we had was light, and shelter, and each other. We developed fear reactions to protect us from perceived harm.

Fear causes certain certain physiological reactions such as increased heart beat and shallow breathing. Your blood courses through your body and everything goes on red alert ready for fight or flight. Needless to say this is not the ideal situation for a good night's rest.
Children need adequate sleep to develop properly. Lack of sleep can affect their moods, school performance, energy level, appetite, and even their growth.

At Hygge we believe that the best thing you can do is go to the source. Ask your child what they are afraid of. They will probably be relieved to hand the burden over to you.
Do not think that your older children are not afraid. They are the least likely to share their night time fears with you because they are embarrassed. Typically, young children are afraid of monsters and things that go bump in the night and older children are afraid of real threats like burglars and other bad guys.

All these fears can be addressed in the way you arrange or decorate their room. You do not need to add rainbows or princesses or airplanes to help your children sleep at night, sometimes the simplest tricks make the biggest difference...
and please...no clowns.

Things you can do to ease your child's fears:

Loneliness is a big part of nighttime fears. All day children are surrounded by other people, parents, school mates, siblings. If you have multiple children you may find that they prefer to be together at night. (This of course is not always the case!) An only child can greatly benefit from the addition of a pet. Even a bird, fish, or hamster offers some measure of "protection" and companionship.

Sometimes all it takes is a security blanket or favorite stuffed animal. My daughter had a big bird we called The Guardian.

A night light (or two...or three) can make all the difference. The dark is big and scary. Push your child's bed against a wall. Some children hate feeling vulnerable out in the open.

I bet you used to run and jump for the bed trying to clear that forbidden zone where something underneath could reach out and grab you. Children that are afraid of "under the bed" can benefit from a trundle bed or one that has drawers (you get extra storage that way too and don't have to chase out stuffed animals and dirty socks.) Even placing a mattress on a platform or directly on the floor can make an enormous difference to a frightened child.

On the other side of the coin, one of my children always felt better if she was higher up, so a loft or bunk bed was always her choice.

To diminish the fear of things-that-lurk-in-closets, find out if your child feels better with the door opened or closed. Making sure you close the door tightly at night can help, or perhaps your child would prefer open shelving. Same thing with the bedroom door...find out if they want it left cracked open, all the way, or shut tight to keep them secure.

Almost all children want curtains over their windows at night. Make sure they are thick enough, large enough, and do their duty of offering privacy.

Certain objects that are wonderful during the day (like crystals in the windows) can become frightening at night because of the way the dark and shadows distort their appearance or change their meaning. Furniture, toys, or hanging decorations may become sinister after the sun goes down.

Please always always listen to your child. They want to tell you what they are feeling, they need your help and protection.

The very best thing you can do for your children is reassure them and make sure that they know their thoughts and feelings are valid.


Sometimes nighttime fears are a reflection of something that is truly threatening the child. If you think your child's fears are excessive or are symptomatic of a real danger, talk to them and get help for them.

A concerned and receptive parent is the best Monster Spray out there.




Resources: http://childrenscenter.sa.ucsb.edu/PDF/ParentSupport/Fears.pdf www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/info/growth/diagnose/bedtime-fears.htm