Day 18

Now, I've always been skeptical of cause-effect musings. How do we know that two things are related?

On the other hand, nothing happens in a vacuum.

And I believe that giving up TV, or at least cutting it back by 85%, has caused me to live closer to the planet and my community.

Last week, upon returning from my trip to Orlando, I realized that I didn't want to put my one-year-old daughter in disposable diapers any more.

I have always balked at the idea of cloth diapers. Too much laundry, too much fuss. But stepping back from the world of the commercial and plastic on TV has made me want to step away from it in my daily life, too.

We are moving at a slower and more connected pace around here. And, someplace in the gaps around the time we used to spend watching television, there is now space to wash a few bits of cloth.

Another shift: After I stopped watching TV, I started reading more. I ran across a sidebar for this article in which National Geographic gave foods a score from 1-100. Looking at the list, I realized we were dining on very low grade foods far too often. Also, my husband told me he was tired of hamburger helper.

Someplace in the gaps around the time we used to spend watching television, there is now space to chop a few vegetables and put a piece of grass-fed beef on the grill. The extra money from not having cable makes it more possible to shop at stores that sell responsible food that is also highly rated on the National Geographic scale.

More things are connected than you think. And we have more time than we think, if we could stop filling it completely to the brim with passive entertainment.