Guest Blogger Sophie Uliano--

The tide has turned and “Green” is in the vernacular – it’s become mainstream. Only two years ago, I got quite a few blank looks when I asked people if they were green and when I told a man on a flight that I was writing a book called Gorgeously Green, he thought it was about money! Now people all over the country associate the word with global warming or toxic cleaning products, however, it’s become rather a generic term that we can easily slap onto anything or anybody. So what makes a person really green? Do they need to be vegan? Do they need to recycle everything and walk rather than drive? What really makes a girl green?

I like to think about different shades of green: one end of the scale is a very light, perhaps even just a tinge of green and on the other end of the scale is a dark, forest green. Where are you? I’m probably somewhere in the middle (sometimes towards the darker side) – yes, I’m a bright, crispy apple green and that’s my sweet spot. I think we need to find a way of being green that works for our lifestyle, even if its just baby steps in the beginning. Many of my friends got put off at first, thinking that if they would be penalized for using paper towels and zip lock bags, but that’s not how it should be. Guilt-tripping oneself or others never works. It’s like a diet that you pick and it just doesn’t work for your lifestyle and so you keep punishing yourself for caving in. It’s simply about doing your best and knowing that it is almost impossible to be perfect.

On the other hand, there are plenty of people that I’ve come across who are proud of not being the slightest bit green. The other day a woman announced to me that she’s not at all green and just doesn’t get it. She was vehement about not letting go of her plastic water bottles ever; another girl told me that she was ridiculed by her boyfriend when she had suggested that they should start recycling – he didn’t want them turning into “tree-hugging” types. I understand there’s a backlash against anything that’s become popular but come on people! Are we going to have to wait till this planet becomes uninhabitable for these insane individuals to “get it?" Growing up in England, people who gave up smoking twenty years ago, were considered to be pathetic, anxiety-ridden neurotics who better are not point their finger at the rest of us. We didn’t want our heading-toward-lung cancer fun spoiled. Toxins in our environment are the new cigarettes – yet to be exposed as seriously harmful to human health.

At the other end of the scale, we get the dark, dark greenie, who loves a compost toilet and a yurt. These types can be a bit frightening to even the bright greens, as they look on our creature comforts and “convenient” lifestyles as being supremely selfish, if not just plain stupid. I can see where they are coming from; however, this attitude is not attractive or helpful to the millions of Americans who are just trying to get their heads around the fact that gas-guzzling SUV’s are damaging to more than just one’s pocketbook.

So the middle road is a good place to aim for. A great elementary school teacher once told me that his success came from the fact that he teaches to the #2’s. He explained that he divides a classroom into 3 categories: The #3 group who are almost perfect students, the #2 group who are somewhere in the middle and the #1 group, who are the troublemakers. When he teaches to the #2 group, the #3’s stay where they are, and the #1’s strive to get into the #2 group. This is a perhaps complicated way of saying that if you are even just a tinge of green, head for the middle ground and encourage everyone you know to do the same.

BackStory:  Sophie's book--Gorgeously Green includes a forward from her pal Julia Roberts--

"I quite simply cannot list all the amazing aspects of this book you are about to read, but I can tell you this: I love to shop, I love to cook, I love to feel I have done some one thing a day to educate myself and my children in making the world a better stronger place to live in.  Easier said than done right?  We would all do the right thing/things if only we had the resources, the answers, the advice we need.  What can I tell you, but here it is!"

Julia Roberts

Actress, Mother & Activist

More Expert Advice:

How To Reduce a Baby's Environmental Impact

The Best Breakfast Foods

Your Diet Affects Your Fertility

Update on May 9, 2008 by Editor

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