Grocery bags!
Recently I wrote about my interest in using fewer water bottles and plastic bags. The plastic bag issue seemed like the harder of the two, since both the grocery store and paperboy seem to provide them relentlessly into my home. I did find a recycling center for plastic bags, so at least I can recycle the ones I can’t avoid getting. I figured that the other half of the puzzle would be finding good reusable grocery bags that I could take to the store. I’d still get the plastic produce bags, but would avoid the grocery sacks themselves.
The problem is, where to find such a bag? As busy as I have been lately with work and travel, I decided the Universe would most likely have to help me out with this one if I was going to make any near-term progress on it. And, strangely or perhaps synchronistically enough, it did.
I was doing a public meeting in the new Vancouver WA Hilton, a very nice hotel across from a very pleasant park, surrounded on all sides by brand-new condos with store-fronts below them. Since it was a nice sunny day, I went for a walk in the park, and noticed that one of the storefronts was an actual farmer’s market – small, but with a good selection of veggies and flowers.
And there, lo and behold, they had these great grocery bags, called “One bag at a time”. The little tag on the bag gives the bad news about plastic bags and how they’re taking over the earth, and how paper bags have their own problems, which was quite eye-opening. The bag itself is made of polypropylene, is very sturdy and voluminous, feels nice in the hand, and is a dark green color. Best of all, it’s machine washable. Overall it seemed like it would stand up quite well over time and even retain its appearance if things got spilled in or on it.
So, the Universe came through – I bought four for myself, two for a friend, and convinced a co-worker to buy a couple. Next, a trip to the grocery store to see what the clerks think of using them instead of their own bags…
Tarot south of the border
On my trips to Puerto Vallarta, I had noticed a tarot reader across the street from the condos, and had figured that someday, when my Spanish is better, I will have to go in for a reading. I am very curious about how different it may be in Mexico from the kind of reading I am used to giving and receiving. I have heard from some folks in the South that clients, at least, often request prayers, spells, blessings, and other rituals that they are not used to from their other clients.
On this visit, we happened to notice a shop selling tarot cards, incense, books, and other ritual items, so we decided to stop in. At first, it was hard to find the tarot cards. One thing that was prominently displayed were these:
We wracked our brains for a while to remember what “Jabon” is – soap! In a way, these are like the candles that you burn to attract various things, but instead it is soap that you use to attract what you want. I could probably use the one second from left – to bring you clients. We couldn’t help giggling over the one on the right – Macho Garlic Soap.
Here’s a deck that I probably should have bought for the novelty value:
“The Tarot of Death” (not to be confused with Tarot of the Dead). I probably would have, except that there were only the 22 major arcana, and each had an identical figure of Death, colored differently and with a different background. I couldn’t quite see how this focus on Death would help you learn about Health, Money, and Love, as the cover promises. This seemed to be a general theme, in keeping with the more light-hearted attitude toward death in Mexico:
There were also many ingredients for making infusions and using in rituals in jars around the room, as well as stones and other ritual items. The woman sitting behind a desk looked like she might be a tarot reader, so at least we asked her where the tarot decks were. She pointed out a few on a shelf. It was not the most interesting assortment ever, though I did pick up a recolored version of the Marseilles that I liked, and to support the shop and to practice my Spanish on a fun, familiar topic! We got into quite an extensive discussion with her about her own practice, and it turned she had a much more intriguing assortment of decks:
Those above are her personal collection, used with more private clients (not in the shop). She had set of well-worn decks that she used for the public, including a Gypsy deck with 48 cards. She says these are used by the Gypsies in Mexico – I found myself wondering about the origin of the deck, as well as the origins of these Gypsies that apparently travel from place to place. I had thought that most European Gypsies read with regular playing cards. In spite of having 48 cards (closer to 52, at least) these were not a regular playing deck. They had some attributes like a tarocchi deck in the illustrations, almost – except for the lack of a trump suit. I’ll have to get ahold of one of these on one of my next trips and look at it more carefully.
Thunderstorms and cilantro margaritas
Well, you might think that Puerto Vallarta always looks like this, and in fact this is the view from my balcony. However, travelling there in summer isn’t quite as idyllic as this – it can be a bit more tumultuous. Sure, you’ll see the sun, but also lots of rain, thunder, and lightning, as well as grey mornings – something that makes me feel right at home.
The first night we arrived we decided to brave a torrential downpour and go out to dinner. We soon found out that many restaurants, galleries, etc. are closed in summer too, since it’s not really tourist season. So as we were driving around, I spied a restaurant I remembered as having a fine culinary reputation, and it appeared to be open. Sure enough, as the taxi pulled up, a waiter leaped out into the street with a very large umbrella – we took that as a good sign and went inside.
It turned out to be an inspired choice, entirely by chance (the way the best things always are). The restaurant was Cilantro’s, and the walls were covered with art. Since most of the galleries were closed, this was a definite plus. There was indeed a lot of cilantro in the dishes on the menu, which was part of what attracted me to the restaurant. And since it was our first night in Puerto Vallarta, a margarita was called for – a cilantro margarita, no less. It was excellent. Just a hint of sugar in the salt to set off the minty flecks of cilantro infused throughout the drink. Possibly one of the best margaritas I’ve ever had. And the food was likewise delicious and artistically presented. When my companion’s normal margarita turned out to be less than inspired, the waiter noticed he wasn’t drinking it, inquired as to the cause, and quickly returned with a much better one. Now that’s service!
Now I know why the cobblestoned streets here are as rocky as they are – the literal rivers of water that run down the hills every evening in summer. Next time I’ll bring my Tivas – they’d be better suited to being immersed in six inches of water. We searched for some days to find an umbrella, only to have it confiscated at the airport on the way home ;D
Toward the end of our stay, the thunderstorms at night began being more intense. At first they spent most of their time above the mountains ringing the bay to the south, providing spectacular light shows during dinner, easily putting to shame the firework displays provided every night for the tourists. Lightning flashed every few seconds in the sky, at first mostly sheet lightning, followed eventually by frequent strikes.
On our last evening there, the thunderstorm came to us, directly overhead. I’ve never been in anything like it – lightning flashing constantly, and the sky opening up with booming thunder as if reminding us of our insignificance. When I travel, I like to be on the top floor – so there we were, at the highest point, surrounded by the thunder, rain, and lightning. In one memorable moment, the entire beachfront went dark, then powered up again, as lightning struck out to sea.
Thankfully, our flights were all timed to avoid the daily thunderstorms, though the cloud formations coming in in the late afternoon were quite spectacular. Still and all, we enjoyed it. It’s a nice town, even in summer. Only the stickiness of the heat diminished my enjoyment of it, and had I known more what to expect, I might have been better prepared (what passes for light summer clothing here in Seattle just doesn’t cut it in the tropics). The flowers are beautiful this time of year…
Food and drink, two – bottles and bags
Bottled water – it’s ubiquitous these days, almost like cell phones. I carry mine everywhere – hydration keeps me healthy and helps stave off the effects of long commutes, endless meetings, and recycled air. We all know that drinking water is good for you – but like coffee, we’ve bought into the hype that the fancy bottled variety is better for you than the stuff that comes out of the tap – which ain’t necessarily so, according to an in-depth study of the issue by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Why should they care? Because the petroleum that goes into making all those bottles is considerable, and the landfill space they take up even more so. And not incidentally, they found that much of the bottled water was more contaminated than tap water, or actually was tap water in disguise. Yes, the bottles can be recycled – but it takes even more petroleum to do that. That innocuous-looking bottle of water on your desk, in your car, on your bicycle – is no less than a petroleum hog! Not really what we think of when we imagine a nice clean drink of (supposed-to-be) pure bottled water. And let me not even get started on all those plastic bags that come with groceries, and the newspapers.
OK – what to do? Why do I write about this stuff? I want to be more aware of where our basic needs – food, drink, shelter, energy – come from, and how we can reduce their footprint. With bottled water it’s actually pretty easy – quit buying the stuff. No need to be dehydrated – as Americans, we are lucky to have almost infinite supplies of drinkable water all around us. It just takes a tad bit of planning to refill those handy bottles (yes, you can buy ONE) at the nearest drinking fountain, from your filtered pitcher before you leave home, etc. Then you can have your water and drink it too – when and where you need it – without adding to our petroleum usage or landfill burdens.
So, each year I try to think of a few things I can do to reduce my footprint. I already have a Prius, have switched out all my lightbulbs, and have energy-star appliances. What I need to do is stop using so much plastic. The easier step is to stop buying bottled water and instead to refill the bottles. The harder step is to buy and start taking cloth bags to the grocery store so that I don’t get as many plastic bags. I’ll still get some, but it will help.
I have to admit, I have a weird resistance to reusing plastic bottles. There’s something about it that seems depression-era, hoarding, abundance-nonaffirming. Having grown up on welfare, I think part of this semi-subconscious issue has to do with once being poor and having to reuse things like that. Doing it feels cheap, broke, self-depriving. It’s interesting that I should feel this resistance, and that it takes identification of a specific environmental issue to get even me to stop a flagrant consumption practice. It says a lot about the culture in America and how we perceive wealth and success that most people would never even consider reusing a plastic bottle. I imagine future generations will look back on this time and just shake their heads at how distorted our values became.
Meanwhile – just say no to plastic!
The travels of food and drink – eat local
I’ve written previously on the ecological impacts of our food choices, which dance in a close and complicated relationship with health, variety, and the sheer wonderful enjoyment of food in all its forms. Lately, I took Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle with me on vacation, which continued my learning process. One thing I’m becoming more aware of is that distance matters, and processing matters – from a petroleum and energy usage point of view.
The concept of buying organic and buying local is becoming more integrated into our awareness. But it’s about more than just avoiding pesticides, and more than supporting our local farmers and community. Buying organic isn’t great if that raspberry in December is from Chile – the amount of oil used to get it here and the amount of CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere by that plane far offset any possible benefit from organic farming.
Forget about organic farming for a minute – with the ever increasing globalization of corporations and food supplies, most of the food we buy comes from great distances. Here are the astonishing figures which may bring it home – if every American ate only ONE meal per week – that’s ANY meal – from local sources, it would save 1.1 MILLION BARRELS of oil PER WEEK in transportation, storage, and refrigeration costs. Imagine that.
It reminds me of the conservation efforts so prevalent during WWII, when our nation’s government figured out what we needed to ration, and asked each American to contribute. Imagine what could happen if the US government had an education campaign and asked Americans to contribute to US energy independence by eating locally. Not only would we save untold amounts of oil, possibly freeing ourselves from the need to stick our nose in the business of certain parts of the world, but our food would be healthier, fresher, tastier, and we would be supporting local family farms – as opposed to huge conglomerate agribusiness.
As for organics, you can have your cake (well, pear) and eat it too. Local food does tend to be organic, at least far more often than other food. Visit your local farmer’s market or small grocery that stocks it – you’ll find that not only is it local, it’s organic, heirloom, fresh, and tastes far better than the alternative. And contrary to popular belief – not any more expensive than grocery food.
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