Mama Never Told Me.....

With the onset of the cold weather, I've again had to think about my thermostat settings. Now, I strongly believe that the programmable digital thermostat is one of man's best inventions however, it does present something of a dilemma. At the beginning of every cold season you are forced to make a decision: Shall you live on the wild side and put the thermostat at a comfortable level or should you live as you know you're supposed to and set it to a level that is slightly chilly? This decision has become more than mere preference.
I remember the days when my mother and father were obsessive about the electricity. It was an expensive thing, something to be spared and used only when absolutely necessary. I learned to turn my lights off when I wasn't in the room, to be sure to double check to make sure radios weren't left running unnecessarily, and - most importantly - I learned to freeze during the winter. Something astonishing happened when I graduated college and got my own place. I skimped on food, clothing, shampoo and conditioners, beauty products of all kinds, but I splurged on my electricity. I reveled in leaving the lights on when I left and giggled when the electric bill came because it wasn't the five thousand dollar charge my parents would have led me to believe. A lot has changed since those days.
ComEd raising their prices so aggressively after their rate freeze wasn't the most brilliant idea, they have a lot of consumers upset. I'm also left to wonder why I don't get an option as for my electricity provider, but that's another story entirely. There is a small part of me that is grateful electricity is again expensive and the primary reason is that people (including me) will abuse it as long as it is cheap. Our planet cannot handle the waste of resources that the United States represents. We are consumers, there is no other nation that consumes like the United States. In fact, we like to consume AND not have to be bothered with clean up and so we use disposable products which is even worse. Unless being wasteful becomes prohibitively expensive, we will continue to waste. There are very few people in the US who take our current crisis seriously enough that they think about it on a daily basis. Until we can become responsible, we're just going to have to make things too expensive to waste.
So, while I will grumble as I pay my outrageously high electric bill... I will also smile deep inside knowing the same expense is causing many people to use resources wisely.