I’ve never been one for debate or trying to sway others to my way of thinking. To be honest, I have often found it difficult to hold onto what I once thought were deep held beliefs, and my opinion on this depends on my perspective for the day. Some days I perceive it to be weakness of character – not really knowing my own mind, and having a wishy-washy sort of belief system. Other days I can convince myself it’s simply an indication of an open mind and willingness to grow and change. A path to enlightenment if you will – hah - whatever that means! Chances are, in the big picture it matters not whether my wishy-washy disposition is a character defect or a sign of intelligence. It is part of who I am which I must accept. As for others, well they are free to take it or leave it. In other words, I’ve worn a lot of different hats throughout my life thus far. Politically I’ve gone from uninterested and uninformed, to conservative republican, to interested middle-of-the road, and now I’m closer to a progressive democrat despite what my official registration indicates. Spiritually, I’ve gone from atheist, to born again Bible thumping Christian, to fallen sinner, to confused seeker of spirituality.
While it seems trying to change other people is an act of futility, I have found people tend to rub off on others around them. At leas for me, this is the case. It’s a bit like the phenomenon of picking up accents from spending a lot of time with someone who sounds different from the current norm. Like most people I know, I like to fit in with the people around me, and this may explain the mechanism of why this happens. Sometimes the changes occur quite easily. For example, if I spend a lot of time around someone who is friendly and smiles at passersby, it’s easy to pick up on the friendliness and follow suite. Other times, there is resistance when the change requires a divergence from core characteristics. It would take a lot of exposure to people with an angry disposition before I found myself mimicking the same – at least that’s what I hope is the case. Luckily, we live in a free society offering a certain amount of ability to pick the people we spend time with. I realize this may not be the case for many in this society – highly dependent upon circumstances generally outside of ones control. Come to think of it, the control I perceive to have over who I spend time with may be more illusory than reality. Now there’s a rabbit hole I could go down…. Probably better left for another day.
So, what is the point – you may be asking yourself, understandably so. Patiently, I’m waiting for the words to come so I can share what I want to share. I will say this is not easy – putting into words what feels so very important, but here it goes. Recently, I have become convinced that we are on a path of self-destruction, bringing the earth and all life forms that rely on the earth’s ecosystem with it. Dear reader, I’m guessing this is not news to you. If you watch the news, or listen to scientific reports, the alarms have been going off for quite some time now. Please know there is no intended judgment from me if you are skeptical of these alarms. I was full of doubt and denial when I first started really listening to the warnings. I was wearing my born again Christian hat at the time, and I partially bought the idea that God bore the ultimate responsibility for our fate. I was banking on the promise of heaven to save us from the perils of this temporary home – available to all who accepted the gift. It made sense to me at the time. Sometimes belief in an omnipotent deity provides the believer the notion they are off the hook for such responsibilities. However, even then, I did try to convince my community that God directed us to take care of the earth so we should recycle, not use Styrofoam coffee cups, and try not to be wasteful. This was often met with blank stares, irritations, or just pity. We were in the business of saving souls after all, not the planet. I say again, changing others has never been my strong suite or gift if you will. Therefore, I’m not writing this to change anything about what you believe, or what you think you should or shouldn’t do. In all honesty, I don’t think there is much hope that we can stop the trajectory or speed of this train heading to the extinction of many of the life forms on Earth. I’m sorry for how dark that sounds, and how dark it is. My goal is not to instill fear. I don’t have the scientific evidence or projected time for the statement, but I do believe it’s out there with more and more evidence to support it. I also believe this has always been the inevitable conclusion for our species and all life on this rock. In Buddhist philosophy the Law of Impermanence is taught as a fundamental principal of nature – everything is always changing and is impermanent. However, even though death is inevitable I still do my best to take good care of my health in an effort to prolong my life and give me the best chance at living a life of good quality. Obviously, I will still die, but I’m damn well going to honor and respect the little time I have to live. So I ask myself, why would I do anything less for the home I’m so fortunate to live in? The world may die tomorrow and take with it all the Earth’s inhabitants, but until that day I will do my best to take good care of the Earth to prolong it’s life and give it the best chance at providing a life of good quality for ALL.
With that, I will finally get to my point of posting this writing. While I have no expectations of changing you or anyone else, I do want to share a partial list of the changes we (Chris and I) have made in our little corner of the world to take better care of our home. You can take this as a small way of trying to be the change we want to see.
1. Compost food scraps and plant material in a worm bin. We use the Sub Pod system (https://subpod.com/pages/how-does-subpod-work)
2. Turn down our thermostat a degree below comfortable and wear warmer clothes, lower temp at night with more blankets, and extend the nighttime low temp by one hour.
3. Avoid plastic: Buy in glass or tin (better market for recycling) - beverages, condiments, sauces, vinegar, nut butters, etc…, buy in bulk, re-usable produce bags, re-use plastic bags for bulk items, keep utensils in car for FroYo, make our own plant milk (oat), personal coffee cup getting coffee to go, limit take-out for times we can use our own container, use substitutes for saran wrap with re-usable top or tin foil, refill beauty products, refill cleaning products (https://www.therealmrefillery.com; more at this source - https://www.sustainablejungle.com/zero-waste/zero-waste-stores-portland-oregon/), THINK with every selection – does it have plastic? Do I need it? Is there a better alternative?
4. Switched to bar shampoo and conditioner
5. Stopped eating animal products. Alternative would be to source sustainably produced animal products, but I found it easier to just not eat animals. I feel better mentally and physically with this change)
6. Replacing lawn with native plants – This is in process now ;-)
7. Shower every-other day. This works well with my dry skin.
8. Buy local as much as practical
9. Just purchased rechargeable batteries (https://paleblueearth.com). Hoping this is better.
10. Buy re-sale whenever possible – Mostly at Goodwill: Clothing, decorations, and household items. If I can’t find it used I question whether I really need it AND really question my definition on NEED.
I hope there’s something on this list that inspires you to make small changes. There are many, many, many such lists on the Internet. If you are interested in learning more – try searching “zero waste resources.” If not now, then maybe some time in the future.
Thank you for reading!
I wouldn't call this rambling. I appreciate your commitment to Earth.