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Hi Mamas (and papas too),
Today is earth day, in the past it’s been one of my favorite holidays, full of crunchy granola goodness. But a couple of years ago I went to my most local event and right out of my car (that’s right, I drove ;oP I was handed a reusable green chevron shopping bag. You know, to put all the hand outs, the piles and piles of handouts into. Gasp and oh no! I just suffered the indignity and stared in dismay at the tens of thousands of bags in the park, chose to think of it as a good thing sort of, because of all the plastic bags this chevron bag would replace. My husband who doesn’t take these things so calmly chose to argue, debate and otherwise loudly refuse to carry one. His way was so much better. I’m proud of him.
So today I’m not doing much, the kids are going to go see How To Train a Dragon, and I and baby will probably putter around a book store while they’re there. Now that I think about it this might still be my favorite holiday! On the actual day we’ll probably work in the garden, it’s starting to really flourish this year.
In between all of this and during sometimes too, I’m starting to work on a new book. A NEW book! Remember last year when I quit for three whole months? Well, I still did some cartooning, and so this book is going to have a bunch of never before seen comics ;o) the working title is Mama Is…Back in the Real World; Reflections on Home, Technology and Babies (of course) I have no idea when it will be ready. Sometime soon, I hope!
Have a good day!
viva la earth or some such ;o)
xox,
Heather
ps. this comic came from a real incident here’s the letter that was sent to me (I removed the personal bits):
Your website is really hitting the spot right now for me. I’m glad to have found it! I was eating at a restaurant two days ago and mindlessly breastfeeding my 8 month old when out of nowhere the floor manager threw a blanket over me and my baby! I did not even know what was happening, but luckily my husband quickly reacted and took the blanket off. The woman was confused and offered the blanket again, we said thanks, but no thanks. I lost my appetite and decided to leave. We talked to our server about it and she said they had talked about it in the kitchen before they took action! She said she did not think it was “weird or bad as long as you’re not nursing an 8 year old”. I was glad she did not say 4 year old, because my other son present might have been ashamed of his continued nursing. It really sucked! I am going to contact the owner and recomend some kind of training or education…I think they were so uncomfortable with it they could not use words or communication to solve the precieved problem. It still would have sucked, but maybe I would not have felt assaulted. I would love to hear what you think I should do. And thanks for making this art…I absolutely love it!
Sincerely,
Maggie M.
Exactly how is Earth Day a “holiday?”
Holidays were originally holy days, when you would drop everything and spend the entire day in worship. Then they became vacation days or days when work is suspended for a large number of people, you know, like Independence Day or Thanksgiving. I don’t know anyone who get’s the day off (much less a paid day off) for Earth Day.
Earth Day is just a successful marketing tool, used by many non-profits and advocacy organizations to promote their agendas, nothing more. Good for the Earth one hopes, but a holiday. I don’t think so.
Candace,
You’d probably hate my calendar then, it’s chock full of completely made-up holidays! Like take your plant for a walk day and ice cream day and hug your neighbor day. In those I’m using the term holiday pretty loosely, sure. What would you prefer to call Earth Day and other days like it?
xox,
Heather
Vocabulary/definition outrage? But not a peep about a woman and her child being accosted in a restaurant? Somebody pass Cadnace a cup of chamomile!
Heather, let us know when Maggie M. updates, please?
earth day is my favorite holiday. second in line is arbor day. and candace, these are holy days to me because it’s a day to celebrate mother earth! so please don’t speak so ignorantly, honey.
)O( Aradia )O(
Hi!
I think holiday is the perfect thing to call Earth Day. How much more could we do than to remember that the Lord gave us stewardship of our beautiful planet? Happy Earth Day & thank your husband for standing up as he ought for real stewardship of our home!
@CadnaceHill
Earth Day may certainly be taken advantage of by non-profits or advocacy organizations for “marketing”, but it certainly wasn’t created by them for that purpose. When considering Earth Day I focus on its original intent when it was created by Gaylord Nelson (D-WI). You can read more about Earth Day’s history at http://www.nelsonearthday.net/nelson/index.htm.
For me a holiday is a moment to take pause from one’s regular activities to reflect on a significant event. I think Earth Day more than qualifies in that respect. Besides, if we’re going to measure whether or not any particular day is a holiday by the number of people who are off from work then I think there are a number of federally sanctioned “holidays” that don’t fit the bill…Veteran’s Day, President’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc as there are a number of people who work on those days. That doesn’t even count in those holidays that are significant for any number of religious traditions that aren’t also recognized by the mainstream.
i use to love our tucson community earth day fest, but then it got just full of stuff. alot of it non-recyclable. very frustrating. i feel your pain. i love celebrating it at home, by taking care of the planet.
i too consider it a holy day… giving thanks and worshiping our beautiful planet.
heather in maine
i can’t quite believe that this comic relates to a true story…. whoever threw the blanket should be done for assault, twice, for assaulting the mother and the baby.
mama – i’m glad your husband shouted about the bag. mine would have as well.
and cadnace, i have to repeat what Kendra and strega mama said as they put it so eloquently!
Am I missing the point about what was so horrible about receiving a free reusable bag?
Is it because it was from an oil company?
Is it because it was intended to be filled with lots of junk/papers/handouts/etc? Because if that’s the case I would have just happily taken the bag and refused the handouts.
These reusable bags are great IMO. A notch below your own homemade bags, of course, but still a huge leap forward over the typical plastic bags.
Sending hugs out to this mama! I can imagine how it would feel to have a blanket thrown on my baby and I. I hope the owner educates his staff and it never happens again!
much love to you for having to go through this!
A mom in KY : )
Thank you for all that you do. You rock!
That blanket throwing thing…
That’s assault, plain and simple.
I love your comics, Heather. And I love Earth Day. Has anyone ever been to a Procession of the Species? Everyone (even adults and pets) get dressed up as weather, animlas, plants and parade around the city. It’s a lovely Pacific Northwest event. Also, my dear, I believe Earth Day is April 22??
Wow, I can’t believe they thought it was okay to just throw a blanket over someone- and someone’s baby! In what universe would that be okay? This goes way above the nasty comments women get- I agree that it is assault. You can’t put an object on someone else’s person- let alone over their baby’s head. That’s just, insane! The whole meeting in the kitchen to decide what to do about the “situation” is really comical. How did someone breastfeeding become a situation? But, I just still can’t believe that after the meeting they decided the best course of action was to throw an old blanket over someone and her baby without permission. Not just one stupid person decided this, they decided by committee!
@HeatherD – I don’t have an issue with reusable bags per se. The idea is a fantastic one at it’s root…my issue is that, at least from my American perspective, it’s just another sign of consumer excess. One bag is fantastic, but four or five are better. This one has the neat print and ooh look at all the pretty colors that one comes in. This retailer has their own and gives it away as does this one over there. What happens when folks end up with a pile of them that they can’t even begin to use in their lifetime? Do they throw them out and isn’t that at it’s root our problem?
There’s a regional home improvement chain here that used to have this promotion where they’d send out paper bags and anything you could fit in the bag was 10% off. Then they switched to a reusable bag, but you had to pay $0.95 each and if you went in multiple times during the week long promotion you had to buy a new bag each time (or skip the bag and still pay $0.95). Conceivably some folks ended up with quite a few bags (who hasn’t gone to the home improvement store at least a couple of times in the middle of a project) by the time the promotion was over and then what to do with all the bags?
LOL. I actually had the same question – what’s wrong with the bags?
I see that you’ll be offering them in your store too 
I am still at the plastic bag over-saturation point for now and will take any reusable bag that somebody offers for free 
I have a few, but definitely not overflowing yet.
Well, Heather, you have reached a reusable bag over-saturation point
As for the Earth day being a holiday… Of course it’s not, not in it’s original sense, but it’s still nice to set a day apart to remember that we are the stewards of this Earth and should take a good care of it. Being a Christian myself, I wish that more Christians would realize that. It’s a very godly, good thing to do
“What happens when folks end up with a pile of them that they can’t even begin to use in their lifetime? Do they throw them out and isn’t that at it’s root our problem?”
Actually, I love that people get all those for free– I’m low-income and I can’t buy them on my own, but my mother in law gives me her excess ones and I get some for free. I also keep a LOT so I don’t get caught without one– about 10 in the car, slowly going through them as I forget to take them out again, then I always remember before I’ve used them all. I also can give them away to friends who don’t otherwise have any, so they can use them too. Ask around– I bet you know someone who doesn’t have one and doesn’t want to spend the money to get one. Give them away to family members to carry leftovers home in. I’ve never had to throw any out, nor has any of my family, except my sister who had one of those plasticy coated ones that she couldn’t wash and her cat puked on it.
The bags were from Chevron, and had a GIANT Chevron logo on the side- actually both sides. Just another example of a giant polluting megacorporation trying to greenwash themselves.
xox,
Heather
I totally want to start one of those here!
I am still in shock over the assault. I just cannot believe it. How on earth did anyone, let alone a group of people, think that was a good “solution” to their “problem”???
Sheesh.. Emotional roller coaster reading that. First all excited that you’ve got a new book coming. Then so angry. I can only imagine what it would be like for someone to just walk up to me and throw a blanket on me. I’d want to ball it up and chuck it back at them. Hard. But I probably wouldn’t.
The company that polluted the area my father grew up in, not too far from where I live now, where the EPA has called the worse river pollution in the US, the company I blame for my own skull malformation… makes lots of stuff. They greenwash crap too… even brag about the clean up they have been forced to do. Anyway, there was a huge piece of foam board in my living room as temporary insulation while we were remodeling.. it took me a couple weeks to realize that that stupid company’s name was in giant letters across that foam board. It really bothered me. I can only imagine if someone handed me a bag, like, “Happy Earth Day! Here; help us advertise for these guys!” I think not.
Plus I agree with mamaraby. We get a million cloth bags. Never had to buy one. They don’t end up in trees the way the plastic bags do, and are obviously the best plan as far as bag choices go. But no matter what the material, the rules are still REDUCE, reuse, recycle. Reduce comes first.
We have a ton of bags too, most that we bought (usually from grocery stores) but a few that were giveaways. We use them all. We use them for all forms of shopping, from the superstore to the mall to the farmer’s market. We use them for tote bags. We use them for music book bags. We use them to pack car-stuff in for trips, or like mini-suitcases for overnights or trips to grandma’s. Or if we want to send something home with a friend or relative — they’re inexpensive enough that we don’t mind if it doesn’t get returned. There’s no such thing as an unused bag. Or too many bags.
And most grocery stores (at least around here!) will take them back when they wear out and recycle them into new bags. Not as good as ‘reducing’ how much we buy, or course, but better than the landfill!
But I understand now that it was about the Chevron logo. Totally inconsistent with Earth Day!!! Greenwashing at its most egregious.
True, Earth Day is actually April 22, it’s just often celebrated on the weekend before, or after, or sometime. What the heck, okay, forget I said anything! It’s not a holiday, it’s not on April 17th, the bags are fine! Yes you can have too many, yes you can never have enough! sheesh ;o) Glad you guys don’t take the fine tooth comb to the comics! hee hee hooooo.
xox,
Heather
It would be interesting to find out whether the restaurant in question has security cameras that may have captured this assault. That is inexcusable. Something should be done, really.
Cloth bag overload here but only because my husband is obsessed with them.
I can imagine asking someone to cover up or suggesting that they cover up or even rudely TELLING them to cover up, but to actually cover them without permission – I just can’t fathom that! The staff at the restaurant could have just formed a human wall to protect innocent patrons from the horrible sight of a nursing mom!
That J-Mom comment was me, Julinda. (Not that I need to take credit for it but … )