No Pockets Necessary

I read with interest a recent NY Times article about a by-product of Japan’s aging population that was being put to good use – adult diapers. The claim was fantastic: “In rapidly aging Japan, more diapers are used by older, incontinent people than by babies.” Fascinating.

While theirs wasn’t a “knock-it-out-of-the-park” solution, it did do enough to at least break even while promoting innovation in our approach to waste materials. The Japanese are recycling the diapers into fuel pellets. And sure, while one must wonder where the “350-degree heat” to complete the process comes from, we’ve got to admit that perhaps we can come to a point somewhere down the line where things like this can be turned into something useful and even life-saving (in the realm of combatting climate change), if not profitable.

It would be good to come to a point like this, where we can come up with efficient solutions without having to dangle the dollar signs in front of the eyes of innovators…although the dollar signs can still help.  But we must admit that the reason why we haven’t come far enough yet is because there just isn’t enough money in it. Such is human nature. We’re not quite at the point yet where death and destruction counterbalance the need to make a buck.

But about those diapers. That’s an interesting piece to the puzzle. Because while we’re talking about saving the planet for the coming generations, those generations seem to be dwindling. Fertility and birth rates in the developed world are dropping across the board. Where my parents (and God bless them for it!) had six pretty awesome children, far fewer families these days are doing the same. It seems the structure of today’s family just doesn’t lend itself to such numbers anymore.  Perhaps we’ve lost the art of family coordination and care. We certainly can’t deny that housing, feeding, and clothing a large brood has certainly become more challenging. But it also rests on just where our priorities lie. Is having a large family and sacrificing everything that comes with it (the vacations in the Caribbean, the wine parties, man caves, and hot tubs…or whatever the kids are doing these days) your deal, or would you rather just have the stuff?

And it seems that the stuff is winning out. And maybe that’s part of the problem too. Because the stuff comes with airline miles, cruise ships, and a manufacturing process that has to get its resources from somewhere; not to mention delivering the finished product to our living rooms/garages/second homes. Are we a consumerist culture? Well, here I am on a Friday afternoon, already being deluged with the world’s expectations of me a week from today (Black Friday if you aren’t doing the math). And then there’s the Christmas displays and advertising…

Let’s not go there…yet.

It’s an odd paradox. We’re debating the sacrifices that absolutely have to be made to keep the world from burning during the season that’s been turned on its head — from joy and celebration to mad consumerism at all costs. No wonder the world’s been overcome with cynicism. We’re absolutely schizophrenic when it comes to such things.

There’s no denying I’m already on the back nine when it comes to life. Not quite, as Tom Schrader would say, “waggling on the 18^th tee,” but far closer to the Depends than the Huggies. And should I care? Well, I’ve got a great little grandson right now who’s going to have to figure it out one of these days, and I sure would like for him to have a head start. And I do this in the little things, because I don’t exactly expect everyone to wholesale give up their lives for him (although I hope when they have great little grandsons, they’ll change their tunes). I’m just asking for a little more simplicity out of people. A step away from the materialism of life and a step toward something as easy as riding a bike to work. Or filtering our own water (or drinking tap water!) instead of drinking bottled water. Recycling. Coming up with solutions. Easy stuff that really doesn’t demand a lot of us.

As I’ve so aptly heard – the death rate is 100%. We’re all on that path. I just hope that people would “make it count” not by getting all they can, but by living all they can — knowing that it’s not all about the stuff.