Welcome back for the second half of my interview with environmentally aware Susan Agate and Mike Slutsky. You two have done quite a lot over the years. How do you pass on your mission without being preachy?
Susan: I have tried to raise the consciousness of others. During my years as a Montessori teacher, I learned that acting as a role model was a better way to get people to follow my lead than trying to bully people into changing their behavior. So what do I do? When I give gifts to people I try to give them Fair Trade items that are not harmful to the environment. Some examples: trivets and place mats made of recycled newspaper (rolled tightly and tied in circles, if you can picture that) purchased at 10,000 Villages, jewelry from Bead for Life (made from recycled magazines) an organization that supports poor women in Uganda, Endangered Species chocolate bars that are fair trade, organic, kosher and the company donates a percentage of the profit to endangered species, organic cotton baby gifts, memberships to organizations that I think are worth supporting. I'll try to bring up environmental concerns in the course of a conversation, without forcing my views on someone.
When we go out to dinner with friends, Mike and I often order fish. One of us will pull out our sustainable seafood guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, to find out what the best choice is, environmentally speaking. If someone comes to our house and comments on something "green," I'll give the relevant details about the object. When we have guests for dinner, I'll usually announce which ingredients come from "our" farm, and then talk about how a CSA works. Whenever I can introduce the environmental aspect of an activity into a conversation, I do. For instance, when someone asked what I was doing the other day, and I was going with my daughter and granddaughter to a second-hand children's clothing store, (Once Upon a Child, which is now in several cities) I mentioned that it was better for the environment to reuse items rather than purchase them new (they understood the economic reason for shopping there, but hadn't thought of the environmental reason).
When I was in college, I was an ardent and vocal feminist at a time when people weren't all buying into feminist rhetoric. I learned that people were tired of listening to us and didn't want to talk with us about feminist ideas. If I had just lived the life rather than yelling about it, I might have drawn in some people.
How successfully have you infected your four kids with your green philosophy?
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