I recall
all too well the fervent admonitions of my mother regarding the use of
electricity and water in our house. Her sarcastic inflection, furrowed brow and exasperated hand
gestures as she forcefully flipped off all the light switches while jaunting from room to
room. And I remember rolling my teenaged eyes and wondering what the big deal was…"jeez old people are crazy" I thought.
But like
all of life’s sweet ironies, I am now the hand waving, twisted faced, snarky little light Nazi.
My eldest
son Max is convinced that he must have all 4 of the lights in his bedroom turned on
to get dressed in the morning. He
has a bathroom off of his bedroom too, so add two more energy-sucking flip
switches onto that. And he rarely remembers to turn them all off. And Truman, well, Truman can't remember to put on underwear sometimes.
As I walk through our house I can
literally see the George Washingtons bursting into flames from all that
incandescent heat. Dollar by dollar, each month we are reminded of our wasteful ways.
And don’t
even get me started on the length of our showers and depths of our baths.
My boys are sufficiently tired of hearing
my doctoral dissertation on how we are not only hurting our bank account but
the world at large every time we needlessly turn stuff on, without turning it
off. But the fact is they don’t really care about our bank account. They don’t. And
discussions of polar icecaps and global warming is about as real to them as a
Harry Potter movie…kinda scary and intriguing but rather fantastical and over
produced.
That was until we rented the movie Arctic Tale two days
ago. During this hour and a half film my kids had an environmental Ah Ha
moment.
They sat
there transfixed by the life stories of a polar bear cub and a walrus pup
living at the top of the world, as their frozen foundation begins to melt underneath
them. The same people that brought
us March of the Penguins produced it, and it is just as beautiful and inspiring. And just as worrysome. At the end of the film, children appear on the screen giving easy tips for reducing ones carbon footprint and thus helping to protect our artic friends.
As soon as
the movie was over my boys were full of questions about how all this melting
was occurring, and more importantly what we were going to do about it. We spent the rest of that evening
lighting candles and using flashlights, and talking about how we can make
better choices for the world, and those cute little polar critters.
Truman suggested we spend one night a week by candlelight, and Max (our shower
hog), promised to be a speedier scrubber, and pick one light by which to get ready in the morning.
I’m now
through with my rants and speeches about lights and showers. From now on I’m going straight for
their animal loving heartstrings. I’m thinking of buying that movie to show
from time to time, and posting pictures of cute little polar bear cubs by every
light switch in the house. Oh and Max now has a shower clock.
If you too are looking for a way to get your kids to help reduce your family’s carbon
footprint, give Arctic Tale a try.
If nothing else it’s a fabulous family movie night selection.