Nothing Gold

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. -Robert Frost

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Location: Arlington, Virginia, United States

I am a white American middle class suburban housewife trying desperately to tell herself that that is not who she is. One time I was a glowing young ruffian. Oh my God it was a million years ago.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Dilemma

So, for the lenten season, I've been trying to cut down on the amount of money I spend on luxuries and unnecessaries, like eating out. Then, I've been putting the saved amount into a jar at church for a family that needs it. That info will help explain my little dilemma at the grocery store today. I was in the dairy aisle, about to buy eggs. The regular large eggs were $1 for a dozen. The organic large eggs were $4.79 for a dozen. I stood there for several minutes trying to decide which to buy. If I were to buy the regular eggs, I could add $3.79 to the jar. That's kind of a lot, and those amounts really start to add up over a week. On the other hand, I know how badly chickens are treated at some egg farms. And organic is better for the environment. But maybe the basic needs of people should be more important than the needs of chickens. But perhaps that is being short sighted, perhaps I should worry more about preserving the earth for many future people than the transitory needs of people now. Hmm....
I ended up buying the regular eggs. What would you have done?

5 Comments:

Blogger Mike Stavlund said...

were you shopping at the Giant? Because organic eggs are only about two bucks at Whole Foods.
But either way, I'd have bought the organic eggs. But that is one dilemma, all right. Not easy.

6:02 PM  
Blogger Mike Croghan said...

Ach. That sort of dilemma is familiar to Tina and me. We're lacto-ovo vegetarians (Tina's much stricter than I am) for ethical reasons, but we've never much bought organic, because we try instead to a) minimize the amounts of the few animal products we do comsume (dairy and eggs), and b) save money. In practice, espectially for pinko treehuggers, we're probably woefully underconcerned about the environment. We would have chosen as you did, but Mike may well have it right. A dilemma indeed.

9:18 PM  
Blogger Maggie said...

It was Safeway. Same diff I guess. I suppose I would buy organic eggs at Whole Foods if I regularly bought eggs.

10:57 PM  
Blogger kate said...

Ugh. Regular eggs, with a generous side order of guilt.
I know it. I get 'regular' (not whole, though) milk because I'm put off by the cost. Though, I guess that's more of a human health issue than a humane to chickens issue. It is heartbreaking to see footage of what their 'lives' are like.

11:33 AM  
Blogger Maggie said...

yeah, we buy regular nonfat milk for us and organic whole milk for Levi. Not sure what that says about us. Also, whole foods has milk that is not organic but is hormone free. I'm not really sure what the distinction is.

7:31 PM  

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