I followed your interview with VPR with interest. I found it to be somewhat disingenuous for you be talking about consumerism, doing without, etc. and at the same time maintaining two households with the duplication of items,resources, and energy use.(I am pretty sure you do not pack everything up to move between VT and NYC). In a time when people are lucky to have one residence, the ability to maintain two households certainly is a statement of overuse of resources, and a very strong statement of crass consumerism
Comment by Jay Bellanca — January 14, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
Hi Jay,
True, two people, two households. If I were a single woman living alone and Paul were a single man living alone, you’d have no objection. So couples should live together for the sake of the planet — that’s part of your message. Still, we were two adults from different states who met, who already had lives, work, and families in each state. So we move back and forth, rent the apartment when we’re not there, reuse, recycle, and keep our carbon footprint really low, even with two households. I don’t claim to be a model for anyone else or hold myself up as superior to anyone. I just did an experiment in my relationship to the marketplace.
Thanks for writing.
My comments have nothing to do with the sex of the individuals, so the somewhat defensive, sounding Paul and single woman comes from where?
In these trying ecological(economical) times maybe we all will not have the luxury of being able to move between two places. Being up on the NY/VT border there are lots of expensive McMansions that are ruining the landscape and squandering resources. I am glad that you are aware of your carbon footprint, recycle and reuse. We all need to do that!
Thanks
Comment by Jay Bellanca — February 3, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
Chiming in… I don’t read Judith’s reply to the first comment as defensive at all, and I don’t read her reply as having anything to do with the sex of the individuals except incidentally. Her point, as I read it, is that Jay wouldn’t have batted an eye at any two single individuals (of whatever sex) living in separate homes, but that when any such two individuals (of whatever sex) become a couple, the expectations change. Judith credits Jay as being partly right in having changed expectations, but also implicitly points out that it is not objectively or universally right that a couple must always abandon pre-existing individual homesteads for a new, joint one.
I followed your interview with VPR with interest. I found it to be somewhat disingenuous for you be talking about consumerism, doing without, etc. and at the same time maintaining two households with the duplication of items,resources, and energy use.(I am pretty sure you do not pack everything up to move between VT and NYC). In a time when people are lucky to have one residence, the ability to maintain two households certainly is a statement of overuse of resources, and a very strong statement of crass consumerism
Comment by Jay Bellanca — January 14, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
Hi Jay,
True, two people, two households. If I were a single woman living alone and Paul were a single man living alone, you’d have no objection. So couples should live together for the sake of the planet — that’s part of your message. Still, we were two adults from different states who met, who already had lives, work, and families in each state. So we move back and forth, rent the apartment when we’re not there, reuse, recycle, and keep our carbon footprint really low, even with two households. I don’t claim to be a model for anyone else or hold myself up as superior to anyone. I just did an experiment in my relationship to the marketplace.
Thanks for writing.
Comment by Judith — January 14, 2009 @ 1:02 pm
Hello,
My comments have nothing to do with the sex of the individuals, so the somewhat defensive, sounding Paul and single woman comes from where?
In these trying ecological(economical) times maybe we all will not have the luxury of being able to move between two places. Being up on the NY/VT border there are lots of expensive McMansions that are ruining the landscape and squandering resources. I am glad that you are aware of your carbon footprint, recycle and reuse. We all need to do that!
Thanks
Comment by Jay Bellanca — February 3, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
Chiming in… I don’t read Judith’s reply to the first comment as defensive at all, and I don’t read her reply as having anything to do with the sex of the individuals except incidentally. Her point, as I read it, is that Jay wouldn’t have batted an eye at any two single individuals (of whatever sex) living in separate homes, but that when any such two individuals (of whatever sex) become a couple, the expectations change. Judith credits Jay as being partly right in having changed expectations, but also implicitly points out that it is not objectively or universally right that a couple must always abandon pre-existing individual homesteads for a new, joint one.
Comment by Jonathan — February 4, 2009 @ 1:26 pm