SHIFT HAPPENS – Part I

 

Finding My True Voice

When my big blue Yukon and I pull up to Green Bank, a “green networking event,” or to meet my new green friend Mona at Ruggles Green restaurant, I linger in my car for a few moments after turning off its highly non-green engine. I’m careful who sees me exiting this environmental nightmare of a vehicle. Though my heart is green, my lifestyle has yet to catch up to my good intentions.

On the one hand, chasing the American dream is what I’m told to do by. “They” send the message loud and clear.  Success means money, youth, the perfect home and children, and all the stuff I want and need. I deserve it.

On the other hand, a small voice inside often questions my auto-approach to life. As a kid growing up in a Midwestern home where my parents purchased a “side of beef” each winter for the family freezer, I often connected the meat on my plate to the animal that once owned it. Sometimes I even felt ill at the thought of taking an animal’s life to make ground beef. When I mentioned this idea one night during dinner, it was quickly dismissed as nonsense and I found out nobody else in my family ever had these thoughts. I must be a weirdo, I guessed!

I never liked plastic bags. As soon as I made the connection between reusable cloth bags and the grocery store I started collecting canvas ones from expos and events and using them instead of paper or plastic. Sometimes the grocery store cashiers and baggers were annoyed. “One day everyone will be using these kinds of bags,” I would say. “You’ll see.” Finally, this year, I see an occasional person in line with reusable bags. And I am delighted to hear that some cities are actually banning plastic bags. One day is getting closer.

My 20/20 on 2012

“I eat too much. I drink too much. I want too much. Too much.”  DMB, Too Much

2012 the movie arrives in theaters next week. I’m no expert on the whole 2012 phenomenon. However, I can see pretty clearly that something’s got to give. Whether it’s the end of a beginning or the beginning of an end, looks to me like we need some kind of shake up to rock our world.

We’ve become exceedingly greedy. The word “enough” should be pulled from our vocabulary because, in reality, it doesn’t exist. In our minds, there’s never enough…of anything. How much food does it take to maintain an obese nation? Too much.

How much money does it take to buy and shop and order and download and install and construct and fill up every corner of the natural world with cheap plastic, asphalt, concrete and steel? Too much.

How many of us care that entire forests are disappearing, wild animals are endagered, oceans are dying,  and people are starving? Not so much. There seems to be no governor on the human machine. We follow our leaders’ lousy examples and fiddle while Rome burns. Those who shout out, Enough! are muffled by the mainstream media’s penchant for what’s popular.

Like so many others, I’ve been afflicted with too-much-itis. But I don’t believe it’s too late to turn away from too much. I am re-examining my lifestyle, my choices, my “needs vs wants.” Maybe, if we all wake up to the fact that too much is not too good, then 2012 will usher in a new era – one of caring for others and all of life. One that breeds contentment.

You Are The One

“Tell me everything is all taken care of by those qualified to take care of it all.” Dave Matthews Band, Dive In

A new friend and I were talking the other day. We’re like-minded in that we both believe there’s a lot of room for  improvement in the world these days. She mentioned how, when she was young, she watched her parents throw trash out of the car window. That didn’t seem right and she questioned their judgment. She asked them if they were littering? “Of course not. There are people who pick this stuff up,” was their response.

I remember riding in the car with my grandmother when I was a kid. She’d open a new pack of cigarettes and throw the cellophane wrapper out the window. And then her lit cigarette when she finished smoking it. I had the same feeling that maybe that wasn’t a good move. But I never mentioned it. Surely Grandma knew what she was doing.

The same message came across last night when I listened to Dave Matthews’ tongue-in-cheek song about our ability to turn our heads away from the obvious, avoid personal responsibility, and pretend there’s somebody else out there who’s going to clean up our messes.

Wake up sleepy head! YOU are the one who’s been hired by the planet to:

1) Be a good steward of our natural resources – Today and every day, when you see someone else’s trash, you pick it up and dispose of it.

2) Connect and care for the life around you – Pick a cause and be proactive in the world.

3) Use good judgement – There’s always the best choice to consider for every action.

There’s no phantom “people” out there qualified to take care of it all. YOU ARE THE ONE!