Bright Idea!
I was thinking about a gift for my father, whose birthday is coming up in September. He is a guy that pretty much has everything he wants (that is because he never really wanted much in the first place). I haven’t come up with anything yet, so I decided to ask myself “what would an inactivist do in this situation? Here is what I came up with…
An inactivist would give my dad 2 boxes of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Not as the entire gift, but as part of it – like a little something extra. In fact, an inactivist would give 2 boxes of CFLs to everybody he or she was giving a gift. I know. I know. Some of you are saying “what the hell would you do that for?” Well…it’s simple really. I want people to use more efficient light bulbs. The easiest way to make that happen is to give them away. “OK, Ted…but why are you giving them 2 boxes?” Good question. I would give them 2 boxes so that they could use one and “pay it forward” with the other. You know what “pay it forward” means, right??? It is the concept of asking that a good turn be repaid by having it done to others instead. In other words, I’d ask them to also give CFLs as gifts and I would give them an extra box to get started. Now all they have to do is buy 1 box and they will have 2 to give away. Inactivisim is all about making the process easier for people to do. Make sense?
While you are at it, make sure you wrap your CFLs and other gifts in environmentally friendly wrapping. I like to use the reuseable shopping bags you can get at just about any grocery store. They are just the right size and again, they promote something I’d like to see more of in the world. Here is a picture of one in case you aren’t sure what I’m talking about: 
***Did you know that if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs and prevent greenhouse gasses equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars? Imagine what a whole box in every American home could do. Click here for more information about ENERGY STAR qualified light bulbs.
