Lent 4.5 group discusses how to handle stuff

Fr. Matt Ischay, June Rietz, Dora Weigand and others at discussion table

Debbie Young: How to handle stuff

There were two discussion tables at the Lent 4.5 discussion session Monday evening in the Parish Activity Center.

The Lenten practice discussion was on Consumption or what we do with stuff.
Participants told their personal stories about how we are goaded into buying stuff we really do not need.

Some points made by Kathleen Deger at the close of the session:

☹ Although we are 5 percent of the world’s population, we use 30 per cent of the world’s resources and create 30 percent of the world’s waste.

☹ For every one of our trash cans that we put on the curb, 70 trash cans of waste were made upstream to make the junk in the one can of trash. In the U.S. , each of us creates 4.5 pounds of garbage a day; that is two times what we made 30 years ago.

☹ In the U. S., 40 percent of our waterways have become undrinkable; less dtan4 percent of our forest is left. 80 per cent of our planet’s original forests are gone. In the amazon alone, 2,000 trees a minute are cut down.

☹ In the U. S., one percent of stuff purchased is not trashed within six months of purchase.

There will not be a session next Monday because of the parish mission. The following Monday, April 4, there will be a double session on Lenten practices of:
Water: Conserving and Protecting it.
Energy: Choosing Efficient and Clean Sources.