I was just reading the latest issue of Home Power magazine, which is celebrating 20 years of publication with this issue. One of the articles, by Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze, talks about the value of reusable cotton bags for shopping instead of accepting the usual "paper or plastic". It caught my eye because my wife Karen is an avid cotton-bag user. Kathleen ends the article with an idea that I think is worth repeating:

So how about this new etiquette: Conservation in everything except courtesy and generosity. Seems like that would be a refreshing change. We all need to just put one foot in front of the other to keep moving forward on conserving global resources. Even if it is slow or small, take that first step.

I like that. Conservation, courtesy, and generosity should never go out of style...