Confession- I think I'm turning into a hippie. That's what my friends are telling me. I'm not sure what started it. Yes I do, it was the lightbulbs. Nope, it was the shaving with olive oil thing. Well, I guess it's been coming for years, but the most recent catalyst was olive oil out of my kitchen cabinet.

One morning I got this crazy idea that there must be a million uses for something as natural and basic and pure as olive oil. So I used it to shave my legs. Best shave of my life.

It was a slippery slope from there. I started thinking more and more about what I put into my body, and what it must be doing to me. I'm an organic [0] thing, so chemical sludge probably doesn't work wonders for me.

Then I started thinking about the rest of the world. Who gave us permission to trash the planet? Last I checked, God created a garden and called it good. He could have created an industrial park or a metropolis, but he created a garden.

So I switched the lightbulbs in my bedroom to the efficient little eco-friendly ones - I'm only seventeen, still living at home, and mom won't let me touch the light fixtures in the rest of the house. I'm bitter about it. ( : - Then I applied the previously-ignored "turn off the water while you brush your teeth concept" to showering. Turning off the water while I lather up has cut my running water time from 15 minutes to 5.

Oh, so then I swore off wal-mart, because I think the guy in the factory in China deserves better, and I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and say, This doesn't fly.

My entire way of thinking has changed. Its a me-thing, a the-other-guy-thing, and a world-thing. They are all pleasantly hopelessly tangled up so that you can't take one without the others. I love it.

I would love to hear what everyone has to say about ANY of this. A lot of the topics are narrow and the responses are sparse, but I'd love for this to be the topic where we throw around all the ideas.

Organic? Eco-friendly? Fair trade [0]? Healthy? Sustainable? Local? Family-oriented? Balanced? Grassroots? Natural? Simple?

Let's hear your thoughts.