Just one thing.

When the alarm clock goes off tomorrow morning, just after you've flung it across the room, commit to yourself to do just one thing different.

Turn off a light you'd normally have one. Watch one less "Seinfeld" rerun for the nine hundredth time. Print off one less email from the British Lottery (you didn't really win). Send a dollar to a food pantry. Anything. I doesn't matter what, but it will matter. Big changes start with little things. Things you don't even think about and won't ever miss.

We don't have to change the whole world to change the whole world. We only have to change ourselves.

cnchnz 

Economy. The new status symbol.

There was once a time -- not long ago by the way -- when big cars, big engines and big egos were the collateral of suburban success. People stood in line to be the first to own a production Hummer. A war machine for the everyday battle for supremacy of the grocery store parking lot.

There are no more lines at the Hummer dealerships. 

Today, status comes in packages with names like Prius, and with the hum is coming from little electric motors that take the load off the internal combustion engine that sips $4 gas rather than guzzles it. 

No land yachts. No muscle. Just efficiency. Sure there are still gas burners out there, burning up highways and natural resources with reckless abandon (I love that phrase). But the lines are now forming for cars that get 35, 40, 50 or even 60 miles per gallon. Still consuming resources to be sure, but at a more responsible pace. And no, it's not a solution, but it's a least progress and progress better than excess. 

Look, I realize the everyone can't run right out and buy a new hybrid or high milage car. Cars aren't free and the Bush(league) economy hasn't exactly done us any favors in the lifestyles-that are-the-envy-of-the-world department, but people are changing their attitudes and that's a huge step in the right direction. 

So if you're looking for status in your next ride, start by looking at the EPA sticker. 

cnchnz