Huggies and Tree Huggers

I really really can't stand when famous people pretend to be deep thinkers. I took the kids to the dentist this morning for their six month cleanings, and while waiting, I perused Good Housekeeping. Lo and behold, I came across this little gem:

By Sheryl Crow, mom of Wyatt, Age 1
GoodHousekeeping, July 2008

"When my son was three months old, I took him to the zoo. ( I didn't even know you had a baby?) At the polar bear exhibit, (Polar bears at the zoo? Yeah, I checked it out.) Wyatt's face lit up when he saw the polar bear. (Sheryl, honey, that was gas. Three month old babies barely light up at the sight of Mommy let alone an 8 foot beast.) It was amazing for me to watch them connect-these living beings who share a planet. (Oh they were connecting allright. Your son was looking like an appetizer off the TGI Friday's menu.) But I also felt panic and overwhelming sadness knowing the impact our environment is having on polar bears and on us. (Panic really? You better not go see WALL-E then. That will really make you panic when you see what earth's gonna look like in 600 years)

Yet I see something very hopeful in kids-the birth of new activists. (Are you saying your three month old is an activist? Hahahahahehhehheee) Kids don't just feel helplessness and panic but a sense of injustice, too. (Name one kid you know who is panicking about the earth turning into heap o trash. I'll name two who panic only when I threaten to get rid of the TV.) I sometimes think the thing that keeps adults from acting is cynicism, a belief that we can't really change things. (Oh you haven't heard? I don't need to worry about fixing anything. Obama and McCain have vowed to fix it all.) Kids aren't like that. They're awake to what's around them, so they can actually do something about it. (Do you really believe what you're saying?) We teach our kids all these ideals: Let's leave the Earth a better place than we found it. Kids are motivated not just by what's in their heads but by what they actually see, like a baby polar bear. (Psst. Sheryl, with the exception of the San Diego Zoo, the likelihood of ANY child seeing a polar bear that usually lives in, I don't know, the North Pole, is as likely as Lance Armstrong dating one of the Olsen twins. ) They can be the ones to motivate us, their parents to change. (No they won't. Because that will mean no more plastic toys in their Happy Meal.)



I'll bet she uses disposable diapers.