Don't Give It 2 Me

Last Sunday, I went to Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet concert at Madison Square Garden. A tour that has made headlines not only for its amazing show, but also for its very sticky, not-so-sweet carbon footprint.

Apparently, each show leaves a stiletto-sized footprint that crosses over the borderline into 1,500 tons of not-so-vogue emissions – the equivalent of what 160 material girls create in a year!

This image went in and out of my head as I made the trek up the 10 flights of escalators that brought us to our seats.

We arrived early so we decided to get something from the concession stand. We knew getting anything healthy or green would be next to impossible, so we ordered two bottled waters. (I know, I know . . .)

I try to avoid plastic bottled anything, especially H20. With the amount of fossil fuels it takes to make bottles, the fact that most bottles end up as part of a floating island in the Pacific or in landfills with no hope of ever decomposing, not to mention the possibility of plastic leaching into my water…it’s not for me.

I forgave myself because I could at least take the bottles home and recycle them.

And then I saw the woman taking out two paper cups. “No!” I shouted. “We don’t use paper cups!” She stared at me. “We have to pour the water into the cup.”

John whispered, “Can we just go?” He knew where this was going. We were going to get thrown out of the Garden with nothing to show for our night but two plastic bottles.

But I couldn’t help myself. What possible good reason was there for pouring bottled water into a paper cup?

So I asked.

“People throw the bottles at the stage,” she said in disgust.

Are you kidding me? So not only are we hurting the planet, we’re hurting the performers too? What has this world come to? Madonna fans have gone from striking a pose to striking Madonna?

In shame, I took my unwanted paper cup with its hated plastic lid and went back to my seat. I drank some of the water as the cup began to get weak and the lid unsecure.

The show began and I put the paper cup in the back of my head for later guilt and pondering. It was time to enjoy my $65 ticket.

We reached the point of the show where she shows her “Get Stupid” video, a montage of explosions of war and Mother Theresa, Obama and McCain and, of course, our beautiful planet earth. It was at this point that I accidentally kicked the paper cup.

I looked down at it as Madonna chanted, “Get Stupid!”

I felt like I already had. I appreciated the video, but I would have preferred not to be part of the giant carbon footprint. (Or to have my foot soaking wet from the $5 water)