We grew up in Texas. Much of our family still lives there. They drive SUVs, shop at Walmart, eat off paper plates, and have a spare fridge in the garage full of 12 ounce water bottles. Chances are, if we had stayed any longer, we might not be any different. But we are different and we have been ever since we began moving cities nearly every four years. As you can imagine, it all makes for interesting family get-togethers.
The problem isn't finding things to talk about, i.e. politics, environment, world news, etc. We simply choose not to. It's just easier that way. Occasionally, we'll throw little thought bombs into the conversation but we've learned to keep the preaching to a minimum. This is a problem. After all, our family isn't unlike the majority of people out there that just don't know any better. These are the same types of people that we'd like to have a dialogue with and inspire change. Unfortunately, even as professional mass communicators, we're still trying to figure out how to have these conversations with our family and even some of our more conservative friends.
Sure, we can talk about how great our Prius is instead of how bad their truck is. We can offer to do the dishes instead of taking a paper plate. We can buy the groceries or gift them with responsible product alternatives. But how do you inform someone that there is a more responsible way to do virtually everything they love without having them disown you?
What has been your experience with coming out of the green closet and coping with your more destructive friends and family?
When we can see the change in our middle American family, we'll know that green movement has truly gone mainstream and that the world is finally changing for the better. Until then...
  
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