Learning to do without

I have a problem digesting lactose. It seemed to get much worse after my pregnancies. The simple answer would be to stop drinking cow milk. I didn't. I started drinking lactose free-milk. Recently they started charging $4.39 per half gallon of lactose free milk at my regular store. I refused to pay that when the milk my kids drink is $4.99 for an organic whole gallon. So I bought some tablets in bulk at Costco to help me digest lactose. And started drinking the regular cow milk. Only sometimes I forget to take the tablets, and then there's hell to pay in my gastro-intestinal system.

This situation, which I struggle with, reminds me of a story in the Oregonian the other day about exporting Oregon Christmas trees to Hawaii. They've had to quarantine the tree containers due to wasp infestations, and the odd snake here and there. Of course, the simple answer would be: don't export Christmas trees to Hawaii. Instead they are creating new shaking procedures so that the wasps don't try to hitch a ride to Hawaii, and impact the ecosystem there.

It seems as a nation we need to learn to do without. Of course, that means I need to kick my morning cafe au lait habit. And the jury's still out on that one. Maybe $4.39 isn't so expensive after all... I'm reading Blessed Unrest right now. I'm hoping to be inspired by the movement. Do you think there's hope that our civilization can learn to do without on a broad scale?