Riceburner

When I was a kid I always heard adults refer to small cars as rice burners. I interpreted it as saying that them saying that the cars were so small and weak in asia run on rice wine they don't compare to our big strong America run on gas. I forgot about the term rice burner for the next twenty years until I was at a car dealership for the first time in my life and the woman asked me what I was looking for, I said "I just want some little rice burner."
It slowly dawned on my adult mind that rice burner is probably more racist than a cultural statement. And then I realized that I just said it to an Asian saleswoman. I apologized to the woman for my naivety though she didn't at all show any reaction to what I had said.
Making a clean start (or attempting) I explained that my priorities were price and fuel efficiency. Though color did end up playing a role I am ashamed to say. 
Fast forward a few years and I have a family with 2.5 kids (we have the five year old part time) and I am sometimes wishing I had a SUV instead of a sedan (the were all out of riceburners in my price range and I didn't have the time to shop around too much).
This doesn't mean that I am a hypocrite or something. It means my reality has changed. I went from being a single guy who had just Fed Exed all his earthly possesions to himself to a married man with kids and a house.
It is important to examine our lives and ask questions about our values and our behaviors line up. One of my big struggles is with eating meat. I don't like the way the food industry treats animals. So I prefer to buy local/organic meat. But the kids like McDonalds and I'm also a tight wad/low income.
One of the most divisive things in this country is the one-size-fits-all mentality. Some people feel great eating vegetarian so they think everyone should be a vegetarian. Some people get a lot out of going to church and think everyone should go to the same church they go to. And some people bike and take public transit everywhere and think everyone else should too.
I personally feel horrible on strict vegetarian. Going to church never did anything for me and even as a little kid I couldn't make myself believe. And when I lived in Chicago and San Francisco I sold my car but when I moved to Rogersville then Springfield I needed one again.
The trick is to do what will feed our needs without confusing them with what we simply want. For example I don't need a Playstation and/or Wii but I have both even though it kinda conflicts with my economic situation and my enviromental values.