I had a very painful experience the other day. I had to go to the gas station to fill my pickup truck with gas. As I stood there and watched the pump go from $10 to $20 to $30 to $40 to $43, I thought about the good old days when I could fill up for 20 bucks. The good old days were only a couple of years ago. At the next pump a woman was filling up her SUV. Her tab was over $60. I thought she was going to cry.

We both knew that the “old days” were never coming back. According to the news reports, gasoline is already over $4 a gallon in a number of American cities and there’s no relief in sight.

I cannot imagine that very many Americans, other than those who own oil companies and those on the Forbes 400 List, are happy about the price of gasoline and other petroleum products. Our society depends on petroleum not only for transportation but as an ingredient for numerous products like plastic. It’s not just the price at the pump that’s going up. Food is far more expensive because of the shipping costs. Virtually everything is getting more expensive. We’re addicted to petroleum and, like most addictions, it’s costly.

It also seems as though almost every attempt to bring oil prices down fails. The president’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia to ask the Saudis to help failed miserably. Suggestions for a gas tax “holiday” this summer make little sense economically and, if implemented, are likely to have little or no effect. The search for alternative energy sources is progressing, but still fairly far away.

We can tell people to trade in their present vehicles for more energy-efficient ones, but most folks cannot afford to buy a new car in this economy, let alone a hybrid which is generally more expensive than a regular model. And what are the truckers, already near bankruptcy, supposed to do? Where are the alternative-fuel 18-wheelers and the loans to purchase them to come from?

I think that there’s really only one serious way to deal with the oil price crisis in the short term. All of us need to reduce our consumption of petroleum products to reduce demand and, therefore, prices. It’s time to stop driving our cars except when necessary. It’s time to get the bicycle out or start walking. It’s time to start tailoring our cooking to use locally grown foods which don’t come from distant places. It’s time to replace the powered lawn mower with a push model.

It’s time to give up being a society in which people always want the newest gadget, the most fashionable clothes, the newest everything. In short, I think that the best way to bring down oil prices both in the short run and the long run is to recognize that we need to practice a new frugality. It is time to stop being a country of “first adopters” and become a country of savers and recyclers and reusers.

Of course we must pursue alternative energy sources. But at the same time, we need to rethink our daily lives. We must come to realize that frugality is a virtue, not a punishment. Then, and only then, will we be able to free ourselves from our petroleum addiction.