I have read two conflicting, and yet similar, writings in the last day. I thouht it was interesting the way they went together. There is an article in Christianity Today this month about having large families. The writer was stating that she enjoys having a large family for many reasons, but one is the way that it teaches the children to get along with others. They can not be so greedy and thoughtless of others, because they understand their actions affect so many other people. You can't take a long shower because someone else needs the water. I am also reading a book called The End of Nature, an environmentalist's book (here we go again!). And he talks about smaller families being better because of all of the resources a large family uses. But maybe, according to the CT article, if we came from larger families we would realize how we are affecting the world and wouldn't be so careless and selfish about it all. Here is an excerpt from the book: "It's hard to draw a detailed picture- it's so much easier to picture the defiant future, for it is merely the extension of our current longings. I've spent my whole life wanting more, so it's hard for me to imagine "less" in any but a negative way. But that imagination is what counts. Changing the way we think is at the heart of the question. If it ever happens, the actions will follow. For example, to cope with the greenhouse problem, people may need to install more efficient washing machines. But if you buy such a machine and yet continue to feel that it's both your right and your joy to have a big wardrobe, then the essential momentum of our course won't be broken. For big wardrobes imply a world pretty much like our own, where people pile up possessions, and where human desire is the only measure that counts. Even if such a world somehow licks the greenhouse effect, it will still fall in a second for, say, the cornucopia of genetic engineering. On the other hand, you could slash your stock of clothes to a comfortable (or even uncomfortable) minimum and then chip in with your neighbors to buy a more efficient washing machine to which you would lug your dirty laundry. If we reached that point- the point where great closetfuls of clothes seemed slightly absurd, unnatural- then we might have begun to climb down from the tottering perch where we currently cling." It is a difficult view to overcome in a country based on economic growth, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness- meaning more, more, more.