Well, I finished The End of Nature. Finished is a bad term perhaps, since I didn't read a lot of it, but I read the last chapter on what we should do about it. (I have a friend in TX who always reads the last chapter before the rest of the book so she can see if she will like it. I think I would have liked the book, but I don't have time to read the whole thing.) I was taken with the analogy between leaf blowers and slavery. Leaf blowers are an invention to remove the task of raking leaves. We are quite capable of raking leaves, but it requires time and energy- leaf blowers require gas, which releases carbon into the air. We know we don't want to release more carbon, but we also don't want to rake the leaves. His point was that "the abolition of slavery was felt by Southerners to be both right and necessary, but they still opposed it. The economic life of the South was founded on slavery, and the question seemed too difficult to solve. [They needed the work done and the way to complete the work was there, even if it was offensive.] I think the analogy is not ovedrawn: we can engage in newspaper debates about the need for new national energy policies and so on, but our individual, personal economies rely so heavily on the cheap labor provided by oil that change...almost can't be conceived." There are so many things around me that are creature comforts and not requirements, like leaf blowers, though we don't have one of those. I have been making bread and recently was given a bread maker by my in-laws. I have used it twice and both times have thought, "How much energy is it using to have this machine do it for me and shouldn't I do it myself?" I think right now, with a heat wave in full force, it probably equals out, since I would have to run the ac more to cool off the house from having the oven on to bake the bread. But what will I choose this winter, when it would be better to have the oven on? And then there is the whole ac dilemma...This house was not built with ac 60 years ago. Why do I have to have it? Well after several days of being worn out from heat, even while staying inside the ac, I have to say I am willing to put up with the "energy guilt". SO there won't be any major changes coming to my life, but I am trying to think about it, at least. ___________ I started a new book this morning in my devotional reading time. It is about slowing down. I think it will be good. More on that later, I'm sure, but I was actually able to not sign up for something last night at church!