Living a Sustainable Lifestyle: dichotomy in action

So, my best friend in Idaho went and got herself a Prius. Man is it sexy. I have wanted one for years. I am wondering if all covetous feelings register on the sin-scale or just those of a husbandly nature?

The first year the Prius came to market we could have gotten one since we were in the market for a car. The technology was pretty new and we deemed it risky. We tend to drive our cars until their last gasp and hybrids were still such a novel concept. Instead we got the orange box, a.k.a. Honda Element, a.k.a tent on wheels. The fuel efficiency for this small car is pathetic, largely due to the complete absence of any aerodynamics.

So here I am, this eco-chic, not driving an eco-car. I love the term Heather (aforementioned Prius owner) gave this state of affairs: eco-inconsistency. And in fact, we ARE all guilty. Don't EVEN try to deny it. You know it is true.

And it is pretty ironic that Heather brought up this subject of sustainability on her blog http://living-idaho.blogspot.com/ when she did because I had just that very day been dumped by a friend of 20 years for my eco-inconsistency. This friend can "no longer respect me". Her words , paraphrased. My transgression, you ask. Being seen in a Walmart parking lot? McDonald's ketchup packets in my car? No!.......My penchant for Whole Foods Market! It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.

Now she does have a valid viewpoint in not liking Whole Foods , don't get me wrong. Whole Foods has become a corporate giant, of the type it use to love to hate. She is herself a small scale organic farmer and Whole Foods does affect her as a small business owner and grower of that which is deliciously organic. Whole Foods is formidable competition with an unfair advantage. And this is just one of their many offenses. There are blogs and websites that devote much cyber space to the subject of hating Whole Foods. This is one of my favorite:
http://veganfreaks.org/index.php?id=159

Knowing all this and yet I still partake. Why? Well, I don't really know. I still like it. I love the variety. I love the cheeses and preserves and coffee. Things I surely can't get in Idaho. So farI have found no locally owned business that has all this in a one-stop-shop experience.

Or perhaps I am nostalgic for the years I lived in Austin and shopped at the ORIGINAL, VERY FIRST Whole Foods. It was sooooo Austin-tatious. Many of you probably thought Whole Foods is a California thing when in fact it is a Texas thing.

Fast forward two decades. Same store, yet so very different. The snob factor is way high. No freaking bike rack out front. I bet I am the ONLY patron in St Louis to fight 6 miles of horrendous traffic on my bike to shop there. I have a very non-altruistic motive for arriving on bike. You see my Burley trailer limits how much I can spend at this over-priced Walmart of "organic" supermarkets. ( I put organic in quotes because of course we really don't know if this stuff is truly organic) I have very little self control and I can't really afford to shop there to begin with, you know. I suppose step 1 is admitting I have a problem, eh?

Being a human being, especially an American human being, and living a sustainable lifestyle is a dichotomy. The more cynical of you would refer to it as an oxymoron, an impossibility, a logical fallacy. Each person born is a mega consumer of the earth's natural resources. It is with this knowledge that my sister greets the news of a friend or relative's pregnancy with a plastered smiled and a comment such as, "Oh, wow.". Those of us who know her well realize that this smile is, in fact, a grimace. Good thing my kids, all two of them, are cute or she may not allow them in her house.

So my point is, we are all hypocrites to a certain extent. How can I advocate sustainability yet bear two children, choose to live in a place like Idaho where a car-free existence in nearly impossible, drive a Honda Element AND shop at Whole Foods? Yet how can my friend (oh yeah, ex-friend) get all high, mighty and self righteous and proclaim that she can not respect me when she is the very same person who for 5 years collected every Made in China, Happy Meal toy to give to my son and would not think twice about getting in her car to drive a couple miles to a convenient store for a pack of smokes? Hello?! Smells a lot like the ultimate hypocrisy, don't ya think.

It is sad though. Sad that someone has such a narrow parameter for friendship that it can neither accommodate intellectual debate on such matters nor tolerate divergence of opinion. She can drive, smoke and visit China all she wants and I can still respect her. But alas, she has taken her toys and gone home. It is her way or the highway.

Now...... if only I owned a Prius I could smugly drive that highway off into the sunset of our friendship while maximizing fuel efficiency.