Last night I finished reading the book Planetwalker by John Francis. (I blogged about this book previously here.)This book made me honestly face and assess (more honestly than I ever have before) my personal responsibility for, and my part in, the environmental crisis and climate change. And it caused me to ask myself what personal "sacrifices" and/or lifestyle changes I will be willing to make....
I will be pondering my response. The status quo (for me) is not acceptable.
This is a question I'm always asking myself. My wife & I have made A LOT of changes over the past few years, but, to be quite candid, many of them don't go far enough.
ReplyDeleteFor example, 4 years ago we jettisoned one of our two vehicles and made the conscious decision to share one. Unfortunately, we still drive the one too much for too many stupid reasons. So, we're working now to pare down the unnecessary trips.
RT, it's good to read of someone else's honest struggles with these very same issues. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMe too - wondering what my personal response will be, I mean.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I think there's something here about time. We are time poor in this Western world, always having to get somewhere in a hurry, stick to deadlines etc. I wonder if this is part of the reason - we have time 'saving' devices and gadgets, we drive because we need to get some place quickly. When we get rid of the gadgets and the cars we are still left with the need to be someplace on time and to reach the deadline our boss has set us. Or whatever.
I'm kind of thinking aloud here, but I'm pretty sure that for most of us there's serious linkage between the way we live and the way we live.
Happy new year to you, my foresty friend!
I look forward to seeing where this takes you. I know I'd be too big a hypocrite to say anything else, with two big trips this year.
ReplyDeleteTess,
ReplyDeleteThanks for thinking out loud in my comments box. I think you're on to something with this line of thinking. I know this: If we truly want to take our personal responsibility seriously and seriously and radically change...it will require our lives to become very much more "local," and rooted to one place. We will need to get to know our own particular immediate environment much more intimately than we ever have.... It will also mean a "slowing" of our lives on the magnitude of which we've never experienced.... Or, we could just go comfortable on to a destruction that will probably take place anyway, no matter what we do.... But for me, the inevitability or not of the coming disaster is not the point. The point for me is and always has been "Who and what will I be in the light of this...?" Hmmm, now you've made me think out loud. :) Thanks.
Wilsonian,
Thanks as always for being here. We're in the same boat. You want to see a hypocrite? Look at my picture.
The struggle continues to the grave.
"Honest struggles…" that seems to me to be the best answer, though without offering any real solution.
ReplyDeleteWhat do we we do? What can we do? Many of of, I believe, want to do what we can, what is best and right and prudent—but what is that? Talk is easy; real, genuine, planet-improving action that doesn't simply create another different, perhaps even greater, situation is not only difficult to implement into our lives, but so often nigh-impossible to discern.
I know for me, it starts with not wasting. That means food gets eaten, including leftovers, no matter how tired we become of the same thing. Clothes are worn until they're worn out. You don't buy something without real consideration; you fix rather than replace, if possible, or maybe even do without.
We are all awash in "stuff." And we consume as if it is our God-given right, regardless of the real cost to the planet. The irony of it all is that I'm invariably the happiest when I'm living most simply. When I'm on assignment work, I often spend weeks camping and living out of the back of my pickup truck, or under canvas, with nothing more than the basics. Is it a hardship? Nope, quite the contrary, actually. I thrive. Plus I relax, enjoy myself, do my work, and feel closer to life at its core than I ever do in my streamside cottage.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what you come up with over the next few months. We all should do the same. (And I'm sorry for such a long-winded comment. Probably another example of waste; a good writer could have twice as much in half the words.)
My dear Grizzled,
ReplyDeleteYou need never apologize for the supposed long-windedness of your comments here. :) Thank you for these thoughts. You bring up excellent points that should be considered. "Talk is easy" you write. So true, and though I know you did not mean it this way, that statement cuts me. As it should. I need to be reminded.
Your words about our consuming and how we must learn to do much less of that are right on the mark. That may be one of the most important answers/solutions of all, and though you rightly point out that it is a simple life which facilitates the most happiness and not "stuff," this answer/solution remains a hard sell, I think, for so many of us....
Thank you again. You add to my ponderings.
Peace
Forest…I was certainly not directing my "talk is easy" comment at you, personally; rather at all of us, myself included.
ReplyDeleteWe must indeed talk about these problems and possible solutions. And we must act when and where we can…though if we've been paying close attention to the recent way of thinking regarding, say, a product's environmental/energy "footprint," I suspect we've also suddenly come to realize that an awful lot of "green" solutions have an unacceptable hidden cost. There is no free ride—never has been, never will be. The trick is finding the best possible discount for your ticket through life.
BTW…Happy New Year!
Thanks for the heads up. I had not heard of this book. I look forward to checking it out. Love the quote also. Happy New Year.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading Planetwalker right now. I hope to finish it over this holiday weekend. It's taking me a while to get through it, because I have to stop and think every so often.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn H.
http://roundtopruings.blogspot.com
"If only we could take a walk..."
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed.
Very interesting and thoughtful comments.
A Happy New Year to everyone!
I agree wholeheartedly about using up leftovers, wearing clothes out etc.
Wow, so many good comments, thank you all! Let me try to respond to all the newest ones here in order. I am at work right now.
ReplyDeleteGrizzled,
Yes, I know the "talk is easy" was not directed at me and that you were including yourself. :) Nonetheless, I was thanking you; I am ok with reading/hearing honest, uncomfortable truths about myself. :) How else can we grow, eh?
You are absoluetly right that there is no "free ride" in this struggle.
Happy New Year backatcha! :)
Molly,
Welcome to my blog. Thanks for the visit and the comment. I'll check out your blog as soon as I get a chance. Happy New Year and I hope you'll gain much from this book if you read it.
Carolyn,
Excellent. :) Please feel free to let me know your thoughts (or perhaps you might even blog about it, eh?) on Planetwalker when you've finished. Happy New Year.
SW,
I do believe you're a kindred spirit in many ways. :) Happy New Year to you as well.
Peace to all
One thing to keep in mind is that, no matter how we change our lives to live in more sustainable ways, we can always do better.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, it's like walking on a tightrope. On the one hand, we want to stay as centered and balanced as possible, lest we fall. On the other hand, if we worry incessantly about keeping our balance, that's a sure recipe that we will fall.
So, we each need to do the best we can with an eye toward improving what we can without beating ourselves up for falling short of perfection.
Very wise words, RT. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHeres a funny thing- my comment earlier today was not my first on your page- so I went back to see what it was I first said...
ReplyDeleteand now, this quote you post from the author:
"As we walk upon the road we meet ourselves. And at the end, perhaps we'll find that there are no sides to take, no ememies of state, no arguments against the other. There's only death that waits. But on this tiny planet, and in this precious moment, we have the chance to live in peace together. If only we could take a walk." ~John Francis"
and my comment back a few weeks
"I think we never really leave anything or anyone behind as we travel our "path"... I think what we leave behind is a part of ourselves, that we must pick up again when the circle is completed- when we come to see the true nature of ourselves and of our Self, then it is seen that nothing was ever left behind..."
made me smile is all
(note, by circle complete, I did mean death or enlightenment, whichever comes "first")
Keepin it light, keepin it real ;)
Tom,
ReplyDeleteOf course, I remember now.
I'm still not sure about the picking back of of parts of ourselves.... That's the part of your comment that I stumble over....
I'll try to keep it real, and I have a feeling my readers won't let me take myself too seriously for long. :)
Thanks again, and peace.
Peace