And I thought I was doing the environment a favor by using a SIGG water bottle.

Last night I watched an MTV documentary called “True Life: I Live Off The Grid”.

(Yes, I am probably one of the oldest people alive watching MTV. I remember back in the day when it –gasp!–showed music videos! I digress.)

Anyway, a few twenty-somethings decide to go to this wilderness camp in Wisconsin for a year and learn to live in the wild because they want to get off the grid and exist without all the technological advances we know and love. 

We’re talking Boy Scout camp on steroids. No electronics, no watches, no Brita water filters. They have to build their own shelter, trap their own food, create fire with sticks and stones, use leaves for toilet paper. One night a distant cousin of Bambi is dinner. (I think even the Extreme Food dude would be appalled at having head stew for supper.)

But then once a month the back-to-nature folk get to go to the base camp and use the Internet/telephone. I guess friends and family living far away may not see the smoke signals.

Here’s the deal: I am not worthy. I need my mobile phone. My digital cable box. The Internet. When one of the extreme-greeners confessed to taking a can of pop from a nearby camp site, I cheered. Dude! I’m with you pal. I need my soda too.

Don’t get me wrong; I am all for helping protect and maintain the environment. But why do people think the only way to make a difference is through over-the-top, extreme actions?

My plan? I’m going to lower the heat a couple degrees and refill my water bottle.

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That’s it. I’m done.
There is just only so much I can obsessively worry over and seriously? I’ve hit my limit.

Childhood obesity, white sugar, processed flour, artificial sweeteners, too much tv, not enough reading, lead in toys, toxic mold, toxic new homes, global warming, bullies, low self-esteem, high-self esteem, athletics v. academics, No Child Left Behind, whether seeing your parents naked will result in future therapy and how expensive might that be?

Whew. As someone who literally does “lie awake at night” worrying, this really cannot be good for any of us. Where is the study about what happens to kids with cranky, overwrought parents too tired to think straight? At what point do you have to start paring down your worries? There are only so many hours in the day and frankly, I may have to cast off lead and global warming.

Nutrition and obesity (although both my kids are slim) bears watching. Pedophiles and molestation I’m never going to quit worrying over. My kids will be 40 I’ll still wonder if they should ride their bikes alone. Seriously.

However, when do you just decide to put other worries on the back burner? To just start letting go of pretending we can protect our children from everything?

 Here’s the thing kids. I’ll recycle when I can but I think you are probably right to suspect I may be leaving the world a lesser place than I found it. We all are. Sorry about that but short of keeping my plastics out of the paper bins, I’m not sure what I can realistically do for you there.

The Lead Menace? Yawn. Overrated. Sorry but if lead is so scary why are all our parents and grandparents and the entire Baby Boom generation not brain damaged? Oh wait, scratch that …

 I’m not going to relax on “running with scissors” but I AM going to relax on the numerous things I cannot control RIGHT NOW. Or could lie awake nights fretting over to no avail.

So, um, eat your peas. Sit back from the TV. Read a book once in a while. Don’t chew the windowsills. Stay in my sight AT ALL TIMES and remember I love you even if I forget to worry about everything else under the sun.

And oh, that reminds me, I’ve got to worry about the sun …

So, what have you simply let go of worrying about?

More importantly, how guilty do you think we should feel about it?

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