Breakfast: approximately 14 grapes

Lunch: Lentil Soup and a peach

Dinner: Leftovers

Cravings: Shoes

Mood: Peevish

Gentle Readers, it’s been two unbelievable weeks since I first laid out the nine rules of Freegan living AND vowed to live by them. As promised, I’ve kept you up to date on my progress and setbacks. And while I prefer to complain about most things, even I must admit that it hasn’t been all bad. So now that we’re at the halfway point, let’s take stock:

1. I will spend as little as possible on food, and shell out only in case of emergency.

This was going extremely well until I started feeling a little chill in the air and the Husband went back to school (He’s a teacher.) Now I want things for "Back to School"--starting with some new clothes, a Trapper Keeper notebook and a fancy trench coat. I am such a sucker for those sale circulars--I want to get a jump on Fall. I need a fresh start for September. I am seriously craving 4 or 5 new outfits to get me back in the groove after the lazy days of Summer. Plus, I’ve been so good for so long! Say it with me now -"It’s just cognitive dissonance - you’re just trying to convince yourself that you’re still a good person if you do buy a new Fall wardrobe that you don’t need. Of course, this won’t be a problem when I’m Queen of the World and can afford Stella McCartney vegan fashions

2. I will be a vegan.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m a vegan but I’m not happy about it. I know it has only been two weeks but I have not changed my basic position. I don’t mind eating other animals because they taste good and besides, I have wide flat teeth in the back for grain and pointy ones in the front for meat--animals are a natural part of my diet. I wish I could make myself feel differently, but I don’t. I’m appalled by animal cruelty and sincerely believe that factory farms should be forced to stop torturing animals, but I just don’t think it’s wrong to eat meat. And another thing, since I’m on a roll, plants have a heartbreakingly beautiful way of growing towards the sun AND they actually release the oxygen that we all need to live; but nobody worries about eating them. I have 3 cats (Yes, three. It was an accident!) and a garden and I love them all equally. I talk to my plants, threaten them with tough love, tend to them when they are sick and protect them when they are attacked. So yes, I’m really attached to plants and while I understand our very human attraction to other sentient beings, I’d give my right arm for a steak and a tomato salad from Keen’s Steakhouse right now. My own omnivore’s dilemma does not allow me to be upset about eating anything and besides the Dali Lama eats meat and he believes in reincarnation.

Breakfast:  skipped!
Lunch:  Grilled vegetable sandwich and mixed greens.
Dinner:  Homemade hash browns, some vegetable soup and yet another salad!
Cravings:  Take out Chinese
Mood:  Weary  (Is that a mood?)


Yesterday we were talking about cognitive dissonance. For those just joining us, cognitive dissonance is the state of great psychological discomfort created when your brain is forced to acknowledge two pieces of information that it finds counter-intuitive or contradictory. And since I sincerely believe that our national desire to succeed at any cost is now cohabiting in our heads with the idea that our success is killing the blue planet, we should all know how this dissonance works.   Especially since we’re coming up on a decision here.  We can reduce our individual dependence on fossil fuels or we can blame the evil oil companies or those stupid tree huggers or China or Congress for the problem and keep doing what we’re doing (Or we can do both!)

Here’s my chat with Carol Tavris, social psychologist and co-author of "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts."  She told me some more about how our sneaky little brains are processing this whole planetary disaster scenario (And please  blame her if you feel bad afterward):

 

FG: Why are we so paralyzed by the prospect of Global Warming?

Tavris: Once you open your mind to the evidence that human beings are contributing in a major way to a potential environmental disaster the next question is, “What are we going to do?” and it's not all clear what to do. It's not as simple as ‘wear a condom’ to combat the rise of AIDS.  That's clear advice. The environmental issue is really complicated and we are not good future planners.

Our economy is designed for short-term growth, not the future. Companies have stockholders that want to see immediate efforts. Short-term gain--that's the American way.  

Also, our culture has always been a culture of individualism and that’s a problem when solutions need to be system wide. We have this self-oriented approach. It's up to individual women to decide how to balance work and family. Our culture, which prizes individualism, won't help. We need to solve the overarching question of how we make government save us from the effects of global warming. If we look only to ourselves, there's no consensus. All of these individual decisions do make a difference. We do need to think globally and act locally; but that lacks consensus. Besides, nobody wants to feel like a chump. If everybody else is wasting water and you’re refusing to water your lawn, you're going to fell like a chump and you’ll want your town to pass an ordinance forbidding anyone to water their lawn.

[Just for the record, that’s not what I would want, I would want to cut all my neighbors’ hoses in half with a machete, but that’s just me.--FG]