Green couples are having all sorts of troubles:
He bikes 12 1/2 miles to and from his job at a software company outside Santa Barbara, Calif. He recycles as much as possible and takes reusable bags to the grocery store.
Still, his girlfriend, Shelly Cobb, feels he has not gone far enough.
He’s a green guy. She’s a wannabe High Priestess of Green. That can’t end well:
Ms. Cobb chides him for running the water too long while he shaves or showers. And she finds it “depressing,” she tells him, that he continues to buy a steady stream of items online when her aim is for them to lead a less materialistic life.
Mr. Fleming, who says he became committed to Ms. Cobb “before her high-priestess phase,” describes their conflicts as good-natured — mostly.
But he refuses to go out to eat sushi with her anymore, he said, because he cannot stand to hear her quiz the waiters.
“None of it is sustainable or local,” he said, “and I am not eating cod or rockfish.”
Therapists are apparently seeing an influx of couples who are under straing due to differences in “green” philosophy:
Robert Brulle, a professor of environment and sociology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said he had seen divorces among couples who realized that their values were putting them on very different long-term trajectories.
“One still wants to live the American dream with all that means, and the other wants to give up on big materialistic consumption,” Dr. Brulle said. “Those may not be compatible.”
The couple at the beginning?
Mr. Fleming, in Santa Barbara, said that he was not quite at that point, but that he was drawing some firm lines.
He continues to make purchases on eBay — although he immediately breaks down the delivery boxes and puts them in the recycling bin to “avoid scrutiny.”
And unless Ms. Cobb can make peace with his long, hot showers, the issue may someday be a deal breaker.
“I like to see the water pouring down,” he said, sounding utterly unrepentant.
You go, guy…
The guy is dating a lady who is averse to BATHING, and has the yard full of chicken ****?
Ewww……not to mention that raising chickens in Saint Barbie–and importing the corn to feed them from thousands of miles away–is actually a worse environmental choice than simply buying the birds at Sam’s Club.
Hopefully they will emulate the Shakers. After all, babies are the antithesis of green.
Given that they’re living together in California, Kermit, methinks they’ve deviated from Shaker theology in at least one way already…..fecund or not, they didn’t.
Agreed that my prayer is that they don’t exercise their fertility, or, to use another piece of Shaker theology/tradition, adopt.
Watch (or tape) the Goode Family (basically what this above couple is, only funny) on Comedy Central on Mondays a 8. As a cruel twist of fate that’s the same time 24 is on…
They really come to understand “green” during the community property settlement, and payment of the divorce attorney fees!
But Bubba, she can call her backyard a “free range”. That sounds so cool!
I can’t fault the guy for enjoying long hot showers, but having a girl friend who is less into buying things, spending money……..are you guys sure you want to ‘dis’ that?
It seems very practical and fiscally responsible……very much about saving instead of spending.
Please quantify “very practical”.
Ben-
I believe the show you are thinking of is ‘Goode Neighbors’. Now available on Netflix via ‘Watch Instantly’. It’s worth watching just to see Felicity Kendall, aka ‘The Thinking Man’s Crumpet’, in her prime.
Terry,
He means The Goode Family. It is an animated series done by Mike Judge (think Beavis and Butthead – the Dad in this family is very reminiscent of the “progressive” effeminate teacher from B&B). It is truly the definition of “illustrating the absurd with the absurd” – the mother has a moral crisis over buying local grass fed meat from her co-op – and even though it made me lauh, I was only able to stomach 1 episode.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183569/
I have to accept the fact that I am just not hip to pop culture anymore, Bill C. I guess I started thinking of Felicity Kendall and my brain turned to mush.
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