I’ve begun to discover the sense of satisfaction from having things fixed. Like a pair of shoes. I took two pairs of well-worn brogues to the cobbler last week. Good leather ones with plenty of steps on the clock. The next day, I collected them with new soles and heels. Like new, they were.

There is a woman in Blanchardstown who does clothes alterations. And before Christmas I found an old overcoat that hadn’t been worn much. It had become too big for me – thanks to me running off a few pounds. She altered the overcoat by narrowing off a couple of inches and got the winter out of it.

It must be a condition of middle age. There is a friend of mine who claims that when he washes his car, it feels like it drives better! I get what he means.

It’s like when you build up enough worn white shirts for one wash or fill the green bin to put out, there is this sense of satisfaction – a sort of refreshment of the mind. But we live in a time where our consciousness of resourcefulness, recycling and regeneration is now something that all of us must embrace.

I’ve a box of old DVDs. It is just one small example. I bought them willy nilly around the time people were buying wide-screen TVs and investment properties in Bulgaria. Oh God, such waste. And I hate waste.

But whatever about the box of plastic covered DVDs, I especially hate food waste. We waste so much food. I now always order a half portion when eating out. But retailers, restaurants and food processors need to get their act together. They don’t seem to account for small families or those that live alone.

I hope we are getting there, becoming more sustainable bit by bit. And I think we are. I got lambasted online a while back when I penned a piece here regarding eccentric cyclists or “racers” as I’d call them as opposed to just cyclists. It was quite vicious. There is nothing more beautiful or natural than a man or woman or a child cycling a bike. The lads on racers dressed as if they are in the Tour de France? Well, different story. I’d say they were the ones so offended that they went on the warpath online.

Anyway, my point is that ordinary decent people cycling to work is the epitome of society going back to the way we were. We cycled. We recycled. We were resourceful.

And farming families more than any other can teach us a thing of two about resourcefulness.

Yet ironically, Irish agriculture at a macro level is the bad boy when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. At a micro level, you will find that farmers are quite resourceful and sustainable and that is seldom mentioned.

Whatever about what we eat and how we travel, we need to cut back on materialism too as a measure of reducing our carbon footprint.

We need to get back to basics and to show example to the next generation of making the most of what we have rather than giving in to the influence of influential marketing.

Instead of buying those new pair of shoes, go and see if you could have them heeled and soled instead. And you will get a great sense of fulfillment from it too.

People wonder why anybody would watch exploitative TV shows like the Jeremy Kyle Show. And yet we watch soap operas like Eastenders and Coronation Street in our millions with storylines which make the Jeremy Kyle Show seem like an accurate reflection of general society.