new year, new start

I'm not much one for New Year's resolutions, and I'd hardly name this as such, but the timing coincides nicely (much like last year's black coffee "resolution"). I've decided to begin blogging on a regular (read: non-travel based) basis. No promises on frequency, but as I'm sure it'll be as I feel so compelled.

As of late, I've become more and more concerned with, for lack of a better cliche, "being green." Yes, I'm a native Oregonian, and yes - I'm just now hopping on this bandwagon in a practical way. The values have been formulating for quite some time and I think I've finally reached that critical point where my actions have to reflect my values in order for them to be real, well, values. But more on that in a moment.

In this blog, I'll be writing to an audience of personal friends. Others are more than welcome, though I'm not doing any intentional marketing. However, dear personal friends, I'm writing to you with the understanding that we are (in most cases) very similar. Most of you care about the Earth approximately 10% more than I do, but for the few of you who are a snail's step behind me, I'm hoping to open the door to some of the fabulous discoveries I'm making. Both ideological and practical, I invite you to engage these thoughts with me.

Of course, I'll occassionally discuss other things - prospective Europe 2008, the occassional editorial, etc. But onto my intentions...

1. In our 15-minutes-of-fame world, I'll admit: I buy in. Not in the sense that I write for fame, or "social network" for fame, but I'm a consumer of it. I'm on Facebook, MySpace and Plaxo. I have a blog. Someday, I'll probably even post to YouTube. But, like I said, I'm not part of it for the fame. I'm not writing this blog so as to increase my platform (though wearing my literary agent hat, let me remind you that it's a good start to doing so!), and - quite frankly - I don't really care if you read this. I care to the extent that I care about the issues I discuss, but I don't care for my own personal inflation.

2. In the interest of full disclosure, much of my motivation is accountability. Caring for creation takes some extra work, and admittedly, I'm a good American. I like to do my shopping online, I think it's overwhelmingly convenient to do all my grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, I don't want to pay the price of United States-made clothing, and - well, I'll continue this in a later post, wholly devoted to my American assimilation. But, I'm uncomfortable with cognitive dissonance, and I imagine that my posting about environmental issues may help me hold myself to a slightly higher level of responsibility to my proclaimed values.

3. I think these issues are important. I know my own contribution is important, but I'm convinced that it's the responsibility of our culture at large. And I'm convinced that it's worthwhile to provide a venue for my friends to engage this topic. And finally, I'm convinced that I'm relatively relatable to the average American consumer. In other words - if I can do it, YOU can do it.

That's it for now. As always, this is an ongoing conversation to which I'll add, and I invite you to add.

Love, - b.