Stop Blaming Me

By:   Stephanie Benney

“I didn’t do it! “  “He did it!”  “It’s her fault!”  “Don’t blame me!”  “I don’t know what you are talking about!”  Why do we always end up playing “The Blame Game”?

Ok, nobody enjoys admitting they were wrong, or that their actions created a chain of negative reactions.   The reality is, it happens….to all of us.  Maybe it’s a small fender bender at the gas pump.  Maybe it’s passing along an untrue rumor you heard about someone.  Maybe it’s giving an excuse at work for a project not being done completely or in the correct manner.  Maybe it’s time we all start taking responsibility for our actions and the actions of our generation and stop blaming those of the past.

I am fortunate to have been raised by an extremely caring and considerate woman.   So, it’s only natural for my Mom to clip, save and forward articles and pieces of information regarding environmental and societal stewardship.

Recently, she brought to my attention an anonymous email passed along by one of her friends; she thought that I would find it interesting.  As I continued to read it, I began to see things a little differently.  I would like to share the story with you in the hopes that you will see the good that our Mothers, Fathers, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles have done for our Mother Earth.  Maybe they didn’t label it as “Green”, “Sustainable”, or “Eco”; maybe they didn’t need to…

“Checking out at the grocery store recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” She was right about one thing — our generation didn’t have the green thing in “Our” day.

So what did we have back then…? After some reflection and soul-searching on “Our” day, here’s what I remembered we did have…. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day. We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300- horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day. Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. WE EXERCISED BY WORKING HARD!! We didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then. Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. ANNNNDDDDDD…We had to get out of the car to open the garage door… But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then.”

Stephanie Benney is a “Sustainable Visionary” and also the new Pittsburgh Representative for Fuzed Marketing, where she helps companies increase their brand presence. stephaniebenney@yahoo.com