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LIVING SIMPLY, LIVING WELL
I reach for the last towel in the linen closet. I stare in disbelief. My towel has shrunk, I think at first. Then I realize this isn’t one of my towels.Whose bitty towel is this and what is it doing in my linen closet? I examine it more closely. It is rather thin. Well-used, but clean. And so small! Less than half the size of an ordinary bath towel. Who left this here? Then it hits me that this is exactly the sort of towel my Dad uses. One of his towels must have traveled north with us from a recent visit.
I try to imagine using this as a bath towel. Why would anyone like small bath towels in the first place? The pieces come together suddenly.
My father is very frugal. That is the old-fashioned language you could use to describe him. It sounds much more impressive to put it in eco-speak though. Something like this. Imagine being so committed to minimally impacting the planet that you use an 17"x30" towel to dry off with when you bathe. I ask myself if this is as correct a description as the simpler "frugal." Yes, it is, I decide.
My dad has avoided extravagant use of resources such as water and energy for decades. I was raised with it. A smaller--and thinner, I note-- towel will dry faster whether on the line or in the dryer. It takes less water and soap to wash. It used less cotton in the first place. Is it even possible to dry off with this small a towel? I try it. Yes, it is possible. It’s not so bad. It works.
I think of the towels in my laundry basket (my linen closet being currently empty.) They are large, thick, even fluffy compared to the one in my hand. I think of the bath "sheets" I have drooled over in my favorite catalogs. I sigh. Those bath sheets are a bit too spendy for me to actually purchase. And now I realize that my dad would never choose them for another reason. They are more costly in their impact on the planet than the Barbie-sized towels he has chosen for years.
This quiet man has never demonstrated in the streets. I don’t know that he has written many letters to congressmen and women. But he has gardened and purchased organically for decades. Re-used things that appear completely used up to my casual glance. Recycled years before it was fashionable. And dried off from hundreds of showers using an itty-bitty towel. It is beyond my meager math-ability to calculate the savings in water, electricity, and detergent through the weeks, months and years of his adult life. But I am sure it has added up to a fabulous sum of gallons, kilowatts, pounds.
I stare at the small towel in my hands. Will I switch? I have quite a few years of use left in my old towels before I decide what will replace them. But this little bit of terry cloth has raised issues that I will chew on for days. I suspect I could learn quite a few environmentally-sound lessons from my frugal father and his small towels.
