Visionary science fiction television show writer Gene Roddenberry inspired our generation ideas for ‘furthering’ our society with auto-opening doors, laser beams, colored screens for computers, walkie-
talkie communicators (cell phone and blue tooth), and a variety of medical tri-cordery thingies for scanning the body. We all benefit from these futuristic visions.
Often, society creates new inventions and processes that improve our lives in the name of progress. Take the dishwasher for instance. This tool is a way to get around dishpan hands, hours washing dishes, while also efficiently sterilizing our plates and forks using less water. Truly something that helps us and helps the environment. A win/win.
The same can not be said about auto-flush toilets, the bane of today’s restrooms.
I never gave these inventions much thought until the past couple of years when my daughter went from preschool to the new elementary school in town. The preschool was ‘old school’ with the standard flush handles on your basic institution toilets. No problem there. The new elementary school has auto flush toilets and auto towel dispensers. I guess in the designers mind, this is considered 21st century restroom design. And, perhaps, it also helps keep the bathrooms clean with less, er ‘waste’.
As for you, my flock. . . Is it not enough for you to feed on good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough? Ezekiel 34:17-18
What is also did, unfortunately, was train my daughter not to flush toilets anymore. Now, home bathrooms with none of the auto-amenities are left un-flushed for the next family member. What concerns me even more is that is also teaches my daughter that messes she leaves in her wake are not her responsibility to clean up, that something or someone else will clean it up for her. And if these messes aren’t her responsibility, how will this affect her understanding of her role in how to restore our earthly environment? I wonder if we are teaching the next generation that using what is there and leaving the mess behind is an acceptable way to live.
The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. Leviticus 25:23-24
In a country where consumerism is king, where we are given every opportunity to take and use and not encouraged return in kind, what is the best way to teach responsibility for resources, land and animals? Unfortunately the U.S. is #1 in trash producing countries, creating about 1,609 pounds of trash per person per year. From my standpoint, responsibility starts at home, how I live my life, how I teach my daughter to live. It’s one step, one recycle can, one commode flushed at a time. In any event, for the progress of convenience, comes a price. And we, my friends, have just begun to pay it.
I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and you made my inheritance detestable. Jeremiah 2:7
Take a step today. Do something to give back what you take from the earth.
In Christ,
Deana
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota requires all visitors to pack out whatever they pack in, and that includes trash. It’s so easy to forget the connection between consumerism and waste, and this well-written piece is an excellent reminder to consider all of God’s green earth as a pristine wilderness.
My dearly departed Grandma Lucy chastised me at an early age that “we do not pollute our lake” after I casually tossed a gum wrapped overboard. Thanks for that simple life lesson, Grandma. I have never forgotten it. Or you.
Ah, the Boundary Waters. Been there on a canoe trip in my teens. Yes, we brought out all our trash in our canoes, portaging with it all between the lakes. Drank my share of lake water too.