eriously, leave me a comment - I’d like to know. Jessica says that people who like to conserve are conservationists. Maybe I’m a conservative conservationist? That just sounds ridiculous.Last night, my wife called me a hippie. Mostly, just to poke at me. (Since she knows my worldview is certainly not liberal.) It was in reference to my recent order of Bishop’s Blend coffee. As I mentioned in my “About” page, I’m a confirmed member of the Episcopal Church. The international outreach vehicle for the Episcopal Church is Episcopal Relief and Development. (You should check out their website at http://www.er-d.org if you’re at all curious.) Anyway, the sales of Bishop’s Blend coffee help to fund ER-D’s mission, and the coffee business itself is responsible. The coffee is fair trade, organic and shade grown. In other words, it’s purchased from small coffee farmers and they guarantee them fair treatment and a fair price, even when world coffee prices drop. It’s grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, beneath a tree canopy which both protects the coffee plants from intense heat, and returns vital nutrients to the soil. Anyway, with Jessica’s new coffee addiction, and us running out of the Lavazza coffee I bought her some time ago, it was time to get some more in. Why not support a good cause at the same time?

Exacerbating the “hippie” issue is the fact that I recycle. I even bring home my bottles and cans from the office, where there is no recycling. (Except for paper.) I don’t just recycle aluminum and plastic for our weekly pickup, but we also collect cardboard in the garage. When it gets to be a sufficient amount, we drive it (all of a mile and a half) to our town’s recycling center and drop it off. Yes, we drive it there in the pack of our 2005 Toyota Prius, a hybrid gas-electric car. And yes, the Prius purchase was my idea. (No doubt I will talk more about the Prius in future posts - I love that car.)

So perhaps I’m a budding environmentalist. I’m ok with that. We’re only buying Tommy organic packaged foods (meaning, we still buy him regular frozen vegetables and fresh produce from the regular grocery store) because we don’t want him to get crazy chemical additives. I suppose there’s pesticides in the grocery produce, but one can only do so much. Tommy is only 6½ months old; I want him to get as clean a start as possible.

(Have I mentioned lately that I love that little boy? I do.)

However, I’m no hippie. I’ve never… I’ve only ever voted Democrat in state and local elections. (Although while I used to call myself Republican, I don’t anymore.) I’m a proud member of the NRA and a fierce supporter of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. I like to go deer hunting.  (And skeet shooting.)  I have a large, powerful Indian motorcycle that can flat-burn irreplaceable fossil fuels. And parked near my Prius is my Chevrolet Suburban.

I’m no hippie. As I wrote in an older journal, I’m an enlightened, sensitive, new age, metropolitan redneck.