Breaking Oreo Cookies

When I arrived in China, I was happy to discover that I could buy Oreo cookies.  I carried them in my backpack everywhere I went.  On many occasions, I shared them with my students.  The response was always the same:  they would break the cookie into two or three pieces and savor each bite. Sometimes they would save a piece for later in the day. Rarely would they accept a second cookie.

I was in MacDonald's the other day.  The napkin-holder had a sign:  "Take only what you need!".  I watched several customers take inch-thick stacks of napkins to their seat.

I'm spending Labor Day weekend camping with friends.  The restroom has a towel dispenser that releases one towel at a time.  I noticed several men who pulled out six or eight towels, wadded them up and tossed them into the garbage.

Our children's eye's light up at the sight of a can of pop;  they take a few sips and then wander away, forgetting all about it.  After all, they know there's plenty more where that came from.

Ours is a culture of surplus.  We live in a world of abundance.  The value of conserving has been replaced with the value of consuming.

It's the inevitable result of living in a developed (affluent) nation.

It wasn't always this way.  Some of us were taught:  "Only use two or three sheets of TP." Anybody remember this one:  "Waste not - want not"?  Remember getting two cents for returning a pop bottle?  [In some states, maybe you still do.]   How many of you grew up wearing hand-me-downs? 

Wealth has changed us!

Adjusting our attitudes and developing a lifestyle of conserving and restraint would be countercultural and would have to be intentional.  You would be in the minority.  But, you would have the self-satisfaction of knowing that you are bucking a flagrant trend in our culture. 

The greatest challenge (and opportunity) comes for those who are still parenting 'at-home' children!  You have the amazing capacity of teaching your children through your words and your modeling!  You can truly make a generational difference. 

Learning to appreciate what we have is a great goal!  Deliberately practicing restraint has its own internal rewards!