The Tailor’s Jacket - a recycling fable

A poor tailor was once given a bolt of cloth by a rich customer.
“You must use this for yourself,” said the customer. “You deserve a fine coat for the winter.”
The tailor was overjoyed. 

He set to work at once.
He measured and he cut.
He sewed and he sewed,
He sewed and he sewed…
And he made himself a fine new coat!
How the tailor loved that coat!
He wore that coat…
He wore that coat…
He wore that coat…
Until the coat was all worn out.

        

The tailor could see that, even though it was worn in places,
There was still enough material to …
Make a jacket!
So he measured and he cut.
He measured and he cut.
He sewed and he sewed.
He sewed and he sewed…
And he made a jacket!
The tailor was proud of his new jacket.
He wore that jacket everywhere.
He wore that jacket…
He wore that jacket…
He wore that jacket…
Until it was all worn out.
The tailor looked at the ragged jacket
He could see that, even though it was worn in place.
There was still enough material to..
Make a waistcoat!
So he measured and he cut
He measured ad he cut.
He sewed and he sewed …

And he made a waistcoat!

The tailor was proud of his new waistcoat.
He wore that waistcoat…
He wore that waistcoat…
He wore that waistcoat..
Until it was all worn out.

The tailor turned the waistcoat this was and that
He could see that, even though it was worn in places,
There was still enough material to …
Make a cap!

The tailor loved that cap!
He wore that cap everywhere
He wore that cap…
He wore that cap…
He wore that cap…
Until the cap was all worn out.

The tailor turned that cap around and around.
When he looked closely, he could see that, even though it was worn in places,
There was still just enough material left…
To make a button!

So he measured and he cut.
He measured and he cut.
He sewed and he sewed.
He sewed and he sewed…
And he made a button!

The tailor was proud of that button.
He wore that button everywhere.
He wore that button…
He wore that button …
He wore that button…
Until the button was all worn out.

The tailor was just about to throw the button away.
But he looked at it closely and saw…
There was just enough material there…

To make a STORY.

in Earthcare- world folktales to talk about by Margaret Read Macdonald

(image jewishpaintings.net)

World Environment Day

Convention says there must be an entry on this blog on World Environment Day. But is it really possible to make a change on something as all encompassing as the environment by devoting just a day to it?
Environ as the dictionary says is to encircle, surround. The environment surrounds and nurtures the earth. Without it there is no life and you don't need me to tell you about it. So devoting a day however well meant to spreading awareness is not enough.

Many are doing enough to reduce and recycle. But individual practices are swamped by commercial malpractices. Just think of any one super (and now you have hyper) markets. Do we really need that much of variety, that kind of choice between ten washing powders, thirty kind of soaps to name just a few? Is this reducing?

Reduce, reuse, recycle is the new mantra -of what use. We are not reducing anything -think of the number of clothes in our cupboards. Not that I am a saint, but I have learnt to give away stuff which I seldom use. And I do not replace it with others. There are favourites gracing the darkness of the cupboard for decades but they are now in single digits and not the double.

The same goes for our children's clothes. (Husbands and fathers normally have to be forced to buy their clothes on the eve of weddings and other crises). But children's clothes, including those of babies overflow; gifts, birthdays, outgrows all fight for space. No expense is spared when it comes to children's clothes.

My hearthcare and childcare consisted of buying my son just a minimum number of comfortable cotton clothes. Soon I stopped that too seeing that grandparents and aunts would forever supply necessary and unnecessary ones. So I started to tell them to buy only cotton and only filled in the gaps when he outgrew shorts and shirts.
With little girls the problem is multiplied a few times! Is this doing the environment much good when things still in wearable condition have to be thrown away? In India and other parts of Asia we give them away but the fact remains that there is a lot of clothes on this planet much of it not required. And urban children are being pampered to beyond anything that has happened before.
So if we all buy a little less we use a little less. Recycling can only work upto a point. The first part of the mantra is - REDUCE.
I call it Reductionist Hearthcare - you buy less, you waste less money; less clothes, less washing and laundry; less choice of what to wear, less bother.

Trees

Trees! Oh do we realize how much they are a part of our human psyche! Imagine a long road with large trees like protectors holding us in their embrace. Shade, fruit, medicine and oxygen. And we cut them down sometimes for slight discomforts.
India and Indian cities are being inexorably being converted into mini deserts. If a straight road is to be built atleast a few hundred trees are brought down. Of course then the 'Forest Department' plants some - normally thin twigs which die out in the summer heat. It seems there are no horticulturists and botanists in India - its not a fashionable profession to follow. And yes, we now have the date palms in place of large trees. The decorative kind.
It takes some trees thirty to forty years to grow. I have seen earlier shady roads replacing their trees with buildings. Would it be a great loss to have a little smaller house and a large tree shading it?
Like the legendary Kalidas, we are chopping the very branch on which we sit.

All cities should take a leaf from Singapore and the way it protects its green cover. Roads are a pleasure to walk on; apart from the convenience and the shopping malls it has large gardens, wetland conservation and trees lining almost every street large or small.
A treeless world is a bleak world, a hot world and a polluted world.

Click here to read more - http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/man-and-trees-511.asp