Our neighborhood's Go Green committee hosted its first Earth Day festival this weekend and my children participated in the "junk art" competition. The rule was to make your work of art out of materials that would have otherwise been thrown away. In helping them decide what to make, I began to think more seriously than ever before about just how much we THROW AWAY. It's appalling, to say the least.
One child made a mother pig and piglet in a "trough" using plastic juice and water bottles (pigs) and a cardboard box filled with shredded catalog pages. "Even pigs need a clean planet" was the theme.
Another made a tea set complete with tea pot, cups, creamer and sugar on a tray using cardboard tubes of various sizes, an old grits canister and a plastic tray. The pieces were covered in colorful catalog pages.
My son made a mobile out of old banged up music CDs and wooden sticks.
More thought-provoking than the materials the kids did use was the large bin of odds and ends saved over the past month that weren't used. What to do with them????
My first inclination was to get all that trash out of my utility room. But on closer inspection I realize that several more arts and crafts projects are lurking.
Watching my children play with their plastic bottle pigs and cardboard tube tea set, I marvel at the joy they get from such simple and truly homemade toys. And I'm a little ashamed at the storebought toys scattered throughout my home. The kids would obviously be just as happy without the bulk of them.
What of all the children all over the world whose ONLY toys are the ones they either make themselves out of scrap or have made for them? Are they less happy because those toys don't blink, speak, blare or sparkle?
I remain skeptical about Al Gore's clarion call to reduce my carbon footprint. I'm not sure where I stand on global warming. But I do know this: Americans throw away far too many things. Our goods come to us overly packaged and our overflowing landfills are testimony enough.
My new goal for my children is to pay more attention to what I'm about to throw away and to instead consider a possible second life for it. Watching my son dance about in the "rainbows" made by the spinning CDs that make up his mobile reminds me that I can and must do a better job of practicing what I preach when it comes to taking care of the Creation.
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