I saw the few raisins left behind, in their original Whole Foods plastic bag. Flashed to Green Guru, and imagined him going through the pain of retrieving each one, so that none would go to waste. Nah! Why bother? A few raisins in the garbage, did not measure up with the inconvenience of separating the plastic folds, unsticking the raisins, one at a time, and sliding them from the bag, into the jar. Out of sight, out of mind. The little raisins went into garbage oblivion.
The next day, I watched without saying a word, as Green Guru pulled out the dirty bag, and collected every single one of the five raisins I had forsaken, and sprinkled them on top of his breakfast.
I have been thinking about the five little raisins. Green Guru and I have different value sets, when it comes to managing resources.
My values: resources are abundant, my time is precious
Green Guru’s values: resources are scarce, someone else is hungry who could be eating those raisins
His come from being raised in India, a poverty stricken country. I, on the other hand come from France where food supply was never an issue.
As more and more people in the world, start competing for limited resources, it is clear that we, the folks in developed countries need to align more with Green Guru‘s values. Next, comes the question of how to make that shift?
Green Guru ? that’s Prad or I am missing something ?
In any case, great point and article. I too don’t like to waste food, even if the value of the food isn’t much.
My father is a bit like you Marguerite, we doesn’t care if he throws out some small remnants… I am – not always, I dare say – a bit like Prad, I don’t like wasting food; any bit.
Keep up the good work Marguerite. And my best regards to you two ! 🙂
Yeap, Green Guru is Prad, my husband. Unfortunately, I think I am more representative of the population than you and Prad! Which may be a good thing, as I can act as a bridge between the two values.
What motivates us to recognize and preserve scarce resources like those raisins? Partly it’s life experience, as you described (GG’s in India, yours in France, mine in affluent US), but we can all learn and change. Sometimes new experiences change us – going through times of poverty and hunger, living around people with too little food. And sometimes it’s just adopting new principles – more of a free will spiritual change rather than desperation or obsession.
It’s clear that if we were all vegetarians, we could reduce carbon output and feed more people. But for most omnivores and carnivores, changing habits based on principle is a major leap of faith and principle. Not like giving up cigarettes (which has the incentive of adding years to your life.) Changing for purely altruistic reasons is a more challenging yoga.
Challenging yoga, it is indeed . . . And one very few people have the fortitude to practice on a consistent basis. Rather, let us imagine different ways, that are easier on the majority.
How precious is your time, honestly?
I mean, the average American watches TV four hours a day, and then says they’re too busy to make dinner from fresh ingredients. But honestly, if you have time to watch Everyone Loves Raymond then you have time for anything.
Most of us can identify some hours in every day which are essentially wasted. These are not wasted because they’re spent picking out raisins, which is not desperately productive but still at least a net positive for the world, however small. They’re wasted on utter idleness, utterly unproductively. Sure, we need these quiet idle moments, but…
Some time ago there was a survey of people’s feelings while watching the tv. The most common feeling was slight depression. If it gave us ecstatic joy, well fair enough, that’s time well-spent. But… really, most of us have many hours a day spent doing not much but be idly bored and depressed. So I don’t think our time is desperately precious.
Kyle, I can always count on you to bring a refreshing, and thought provoking perspective. You are right, it is not so much a matter of having the time, as of taking it, or rather choosing to spend it on certain things and not others.
four hours of TV… per day ?
I am not sure I am watching them per month ! (OK, I am a kind of computer geek, so the time I don’t spend in front of a tv I spend it in front of my computer screen ^^ )
French average is above three hours and I wonder each time why when I see what’s available for programs.
I think it is high time the people at the top of the world TV channels to program during prime time stuff that will educate the masses on environmental issues.
It is sometimes the case in France, the environmental message is getting across – a bit I would say – this way. I have an article that is partially on this topic. ( Marguerite : ^^ )
The problem Edouard, is folks like to be entertained, and let’s face it, environmental shows tend to not be terribly exciting. Either depressing, or implying work to be done. This being said, I agree, the broadcast media could do a better job at sprinkling green in their programming.
Yeah like Nicolas Hulot’s programs that proposes great images and so on… it ain’t depressing one bit. (or at least not much…)
I totally agree with you in stating that people watch TV to be entertained. Thing is : ” are there other ways to entertain them ” ?
Edouard, that’s the American average, yes. I think the Italians and Turks had the highest, I can’t remember.
But across the West, the trend is for less hours at the tv screen and more at the computer screen. I don’t know if the trend of total hours in front of one screen or another is up or down, I suspect it’s up.
The point is that only self-made millionaires and single mothers are people for whom every minute of the day is scheduled full of some more or less productive activity. The rest of us have a lot of idle time.
As an illustration, I have a hobby – roleplaying games. It takes up one evening a week when we get together around the table, and another few hours during the week when we research things, discuss the game, and so on. Now, one of the obstacles to getting a game together is to get a group of people to all show up on time and get along with each-other.
What I often find is that people will say, “I’ve got no time to game.” And these are people who spend hours watching crappy tv and playing computer games.
A while back I had a friend who did both volleyball and roleplaying, he injured his knee and got more into roleplaying, one session once a week and a second group once a fortnight. Then his knee got better and he dropped the weekly game – mine – saying, “I don’t have enough time to roleplay.”
Another does karate and is learning to play the guitar, and also dropped roleplaying.
So, “I don’t have time to do this,” doesn’t actually mean “I don’t have time” it means, “I can’t be bothered” or “I have other things I’d rather do.” This is shown most clearly with hobbies like I’ve been discussing, but it happens all across our lives.
It’s about priorities, about what’s important to you. Five little raisins are not important to Marguerite, but they are somewhat important to Prad. It’s as I was saying in an earlier response about keeping carbon accounts and the like – yes it’s a bit of a hassle to do, but if it’s important to you, then you’ll do it.
I mean, that something needs to be done, or that you have the tools to do it, these don’t create action by themselves. Otherwise everyone would pick up those five little raisins, and since they put nutritional information on the sides of food packets no-one in the West would be obese. You have to be interested, you have to have set these things as a priority for yourself.
Sometimes the priorities come from thinking about and planning what’s important to you – like me with my carbon accounts – and sometimes they come from instincts and upbringing, like Prad and his five little raisins. But in the end it comes to the same thing, people having certain things important to them and acting on that.
And the simple fact is that in our rather alienated and empty society, watching a screen is the most important thing to people, it’s what they spend the most time on in a day apart from sleeping. Of course that is a natural response to a rather alienated working and relationship life, but that’s something you can read in Erich Fromm’s various books, I don’t need to go on about it.
Kyle, I hardly watch TV, but I spend tons of time working on the computer. I wrote once about the feeling of alienation from the physical world, that comes from spending so much time in the confinement of an 8×12 frame. Of course, the Internet is a real blessing as it allows for us to have this interesting exchange of ideas, for instance. It does come at a price, however. In general, we the computer generation are too much in our heads, and not enough in the whole of life. That is a problem, as climate change and biodiversity loss, and all the global environmental issues that are threatening us, are natural phenomena, that require us to have an emotional connection with nature, if we are to get mobilized.
Time management, a concept of importance; i have not had time to write and i retired the idle TV, because i am saving my five little raisins. No! just making lots of tomato sauce and other products for winter, when the garden fades into compost.
I was introduced to food preservation in France, by a Grand-mother who saved the last celery stalk for soup instead of buying anything she wanted at the super-market. or planting at will on the family farms. My food behavior remains primordial, save or use- never waste under the best or worst of circumstances.
This attitude is beginning to make sense to the people who observe me, several have commented on their new awareness of those little raisins, or crackers or bread heels, that last spoonful in the pan. But it was not me, nor time which changed their modus–it was price, the high price of food and gas.
Now if they could cook from scratch…
Yes, Nadine, I am no fool and realize the limited role of cajoling people into greener behaviors. Not even example does very much. But jack up the price of gas by one dollar, and the changes can be dramatic.
Regarding food preservation, I think it could be such a great activities for moms and their children. Like making jam! Of course, it makes most sense when working with fruit and vegetable that have been home gardened. So, let’s start with there first . . .
[…] can five little raisins teach you about values and sustainability? La Marguerite finds out and writes about differing values as it relates to food […]
Gary Snyder from “Four Changes” (1969):
Don’t waste.
(A monk and an old master were once walking in the mountains.
They noticed a little hut upstream.
The monk said, ‘A wise hermit must live here’ –
the master said, ‘That’s no wise hermit,
you see that lettuce leaf floating down the stream,
he’s a Waster.’
Just then an old man
came running down the hill with his beard flying
and caught the floating lettuce leaf.)
Carry your own jug to the winery
and have it filled from the barrel….
What a beautiful poem! Thanks for sharing.
[…] possono insegnare 5 piccoli acini d'uva sui valori e sulla sostenibilità? Ce lo svela La Marguerite, spiegando come i valori cambino in rapporto alla disponibilità delle risorse […]
What a beautiful blog! Many countries are suffering from hunger and there are those who have lot’s to eat but never appreciate it. I understand why youn and Green Guro has a different value sets, but for me you really dont need to suffer from hunger in order to learn the value of food. Give those 5 pieces of raisins to someone who havent eaten for quiet sometimes and you’ll see a smile on their faces.