Pleaster

For many people, Easter is about when their favorite dude, Jesus, miraculously returned from the dead. 

But Easter has become about something else that refuses to die, too: plastic.  

A quick trip to  the local purveyor of Eastery things reveals aisles upon aisles filled with stuff made of plastic:

• Plastic eggs
• Crappy plastic toys that your kids will forget about in a week
• Plastic candy wrappers
• Plastic baskets
• The plastic film covering the cardboard box containing a foil-wrapped chocolate bunny, and my personal fave...
• Plastic grass 

(Anyone having trouble finding real grass is free to come mow our lawn).

At first glance, it's silly. You think, "how on Earth did it get this way? All for a little Easter egg hunt and a bunny? That seems a little silly..." 

But when you meditate on the fact that plastic takes anywhere from 10-1,000 years to biodegrade in a landfill, depending on climate conditions and availability of trash-eating microbes and such (less time to break-down in the ocean, but it never actually biodegrades there)...

...and when you realize that, when plastic finally does break-down, it releases super-nasty, toxic, endocrine-disrupting BPA compounds...

...you can't help but come to the conclusion that it's beyond absurd that Easter has become so hydro-carbon-derived, disposable, tchotchkes and decorations. It's obscene. 

We plan on doing Easter a little differently at our house from now on, with the goal of having a less plastic-y Easter in order to celebrate things that really do signify re-birth and spring and all that happy stuff. 

We're going to start some new traditions and just be mindful about the things we do buy: we might ask the Easter Bunny to hide some real eggs, for a crazy change; maybe we'll buy our jellybeans and chocolate in bulk. Maybe we'll make a bunny rabbit sock puppet. Pick some flowers. (I'm clearly no Martha Stewart, but we'll figure it out.)

Happy Easter.