How do I want my little girl to spend her time

Shopping is America's second favorite pastime. According to Annie Leonard's Story of Stuff, we spend three to four times more time shopping than the average European. Only TV viewing racks up a larger portion of our leisure.

Why do we spend so much time shopping? Is it partly that the culture doesn't provide that much else to do? Certainly when I grew up, the mall was the big draw.

But what if we provided other amusements that were better for the earth, that didn't require us to use resources idly buying stuff we don't even need? Would shopping be such a big thing? Or would we rather do something else.

I mean, my little girl Isabella, living in the city, is wanting to spend more time in places like this:

But if we used our city land for something other than shops, so that we had more choices of how to spend our leisure time, maybe Isabella would find she'd prefer to hang out in a place like this:

Don't you think? If the sustainable choices were there, we might just choose them.

The pigs, by the way, live at Woodstock Animal Sanctuary, where we visited the other day. Check it out!

PS If you were hoping for news about my meeting with Senator Jeff Klein, I had to postpone it. But we'll reschedule and I'll let you know the outcome.