So I managed – for the most part – to go plastic free for lent. We didn’t sub out plastic-bagged milk for milk cartons, because of cost, so every time I baked with milk as an ingredient, I failed. I also failed twice during two tournament days, when eating out was a necessity, and I decided that supporting a local Japanese/Thai restaurant outweighed eating from a plastic take-out container (but at least with wooden chopsticks). And, when I ran out of deoderant and toothpaste, I took to stealing my wife’s (but am now thinking of some DIY deoderant and toothpaste. I feel like I’m becoming a hippie).
The benefits?
- We stopped buying margarine, and are now using butter again. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Butter tastes better, and probably makes me think more in terms of moderation. Once we get a family doctor again, I’ll see what that means for cholesterol.
- I now think of packaging before I think of anything else in a purchase, and what buying that packaging means.
- I got much more into cheese-making. My repetoire has expanded from queso blanco to mozzarella (almost – haven’t quite got the stretch right yet) to feta to curd. Next: cheddars and washed-rind (read: stinky!) cheeses. People are trying to convince me to get a cow, though.
- I spend more time on making food than before lent, and enjoy the results more. You just can’t beat home-made bretzels or no-knead bread (if you just want the no-knead bread recipe, it’s here).
- My staple lunch – cheese, bread and fruit – gets a whole lot more meaningful when it inspires a moment of thanks and introspection before I eat it in the busy-ness of work.
- It’s inspired some debate – or at least introspection – in a small number of people when I’ve told them about my lenten vows. Not so much a sacrifice as a betterment, a deeper connection to what I eat and how I live, and what that means for interaction with the planet. It was also interesting to hear comments and see faces when I explained what I was doing – from disinterested/apathetic “huh”s to “How are you going to be able to do that?”
I was okay with it. And feel better in doing it. So long as I don’t start growing my hair out again, and smelling like patchouli 
I find this very interesting, perhaps in light of what I have done with holistic detox recently, and am now doing again. I can either choose to see small lapses as fair concessions to reality, or just the result of the fact that I don’t live in a box (well… I do live in box, but I get out sometimes…) I won’t permit myself to see them as failures. A sacrifice to betterment that brings introspection about the impacts of the “great” consumer driven dream that we (in the west) call life, is a sacrifice worth taking! I think of it as Veni, Vidi, Vici, and good for you!