Friday, January 26, 2007

Thoughts

So, I was sitting here doing my homework, when I decided to make something to eat. I made a frozen pizza and was looking all over the apartment for the pizza cutter. Turns out, my fiance had never started the dishwasher so it was still dirty. So, very frustrated, I opened the door under the sink to grab the dishsoap and POOF! Beaucoup de bags popped out. They were all over the floor and all over the inside of the cabinet. We have a little bag tree holder thing under there but we had sooo many bags that they were all over the place. I'm glad that we're doing this project because I need somewhere to take my bags! I know that Wal-Mart takes them, however, I don't really like the store, especially because I work for a major competitor. So I just wanted to thank you, Michelle, for caring enough, and getting annoyed, to actually do something about it.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Ashley,
Thanks for your kind words, which I sincerely appreciate. I certainly hope that our project will have a positive impact in our community!

Your comment also gave me the opportunity to reflect: Yes, it's true that I reached my limit with these bags. But it's also true that I began to rationalize the problem--at first, I thought, "you know what? If I were a parent, this would be a good teaching moment for my kids. I would teach them to become more environmental conscious. But I don't have kids--oh well!"

As a psychologist, I know that rationalizing is one way to reduce internal conflict (or, as psychologists like to call it, "cognitive dissonance"). And I was not exempt from that process.

The difference, this time, was that I made a connection with this issue and statistics. And the rest is history, as you already know.

On a personal level, this experience has already taught me an important lesson: I learned that it's possible to take a negative experience (i.e., annoyance with bags)and transform it into a positive experience (i.e., our project).

This lesson also reminds me of the First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only be transformed.
Now I get it!! :0)