This SALTY Life: “Y”: Part II… “You and Your House”

[Editor's Note: Mike Hearl is a regular Burien.News contributor who wrote a series on living a "S A L T Y" Life. His articles are all listed under "Lifestyle News"]

The last time we met in this space (5/5/24 Column) we were talking about “You” Part I, and the notion of you being “the salt of the earth." The essential dynamic of salt being that it has a transformative effect on whatever it comes into contact with.

That also holds true for WHOEVER salt comes into contact with. So, it’s a matter of course that the people you and I are closest to can, and will be, the most impacted. A sobering thought, huh? Let’s think of our impact in outward expanding circles. Like the ripples of the proverbial rock dropped into the still waters of a pond. Moving outward from you to your spouse, significant other, partner, children, relatives, friends, work colleagues, business, neighbors, city.

These are all part and parcel of your eco-system. In fact, the Greek word for the term household is “oikos”, from which we derive our English words such as ecosystem, ecology and economy. Let’s think our own households from this perspective for a moment.

You and your “oikos” are a living, breathing, inter-connected ecosystem which possesses the power to affect all around you… for “good”, or for “bad”. (Remember, the essential quality of salt being its ability to prohibit the growth of that which is “undesirable” and to promote the growth of that which is “desirable.")

There is a whole lotta’ talk these days in our culture with regards to the “the environment” and how it’s so crucial for all of us to “think green.” We are all encouraged to be participants in “the movement.” Taking special care to get our plastic refuse into the correct trash bin, for example. Why? Well, because we are told how life on earth depends on it. Thinking, caring and doing the “ecological” thing. I, for one, am all for it… the caveat being “within reason”… as in “good” scientific results. I don’t want “toxins” dumped into the land, water and air that constitute the environment I live in. But, let’s realize that those arenas are actually “ripples in our ponds” that are farther out. How healthy is “the environment” in our households? How are we thinking, caring, doing with this “in-close” ecosystem? Any “toxicity” present?

We certainly would be embarrassed if we were fingered publicly, say on King Five News, as having been caught “out there” as environmental “polluters”, right? Same deal in our private spheres. What’s the impact of my attitudes, moods, comments, criticisms, anger, negativity “in here”, with those closest to me?

May I suggest that the pollution happening in the midst or our own households/oikos’ is an even more pressing matter today than whether or not I deposit my used pizza box into the right receptacle?

Speaking of boxes. Don’t we all just LOVE it when those boxes containing stuff that we ordered from Amazon land on the doorstep of our house? They hold something that we value. That’s why we get very upset if and when someone steals said boxes from our doorstep.

Conversely, don’t we just HATE being on the receiving end of that steady stream of “junk mail” being delivered to our households? What if we began to think of ourselves as the “delivery system” for the folks around us? Dropping off either valued boxes, or despised junk as we move through our day.

Here’s what I know for sure… and you can check me out on this with any legit environmental biologist… healthy ecosystems by nature grow and expand. Un-healthy ecosystems shrivel and die out.

Stay Salty,
Mike Hearl