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April 22, 2005

the quiet earth

It's Earth Day. It's raining. Pear tree blossoms covered the steps and were nubbly to walk on this morning when I went outside at 5:00 to get the paper, also wet.

A couple of days ago I read a blog that opined you don't have to sacrifice to be a good person. I guess the point was that "thinking good" is the same as "being good" is the same as "doing good"; and that "sacrifice" means denying yourself. About sacrifice, I agree--kind of. For example, if you recycle soda cans instead of throwing them away, you deny yourself convenience. You have the discipline to carry the empty can around with you, or keep it in your car, or at your desk at work, until you can find a recycle bin to toss it into. It's a pain in the neck to have to look at it, or store it, or carry it--but if you recycle it, you know it's not going to go into a landfill somewhere, just one more piece of disposable crap in a disposable-crap-filled world.

Where I work we have bins for recycling all over the office, but hardly anyone uses them. "Oh, I don't even think about it." What about at home? "Oh, I don't have any room for that bin." What about keeping cans and bottles in a bag? "Oh, I don't have room in my kitchen." And so on.

People don't deny themselves convenience, but they deny the chance to do something good--for themselves (develop discipline) and for the earth (don't toss more crap onto it).

Why do they--why do we--why do I--do it? Or not do it? Why do we fail again and again to do the right thing, and why do we tell ourselves "this doesn't count," and "next time I'll be better" and "when I talk about being a good person, I'm only talking about this, not about that." Even if the thing we don't want to do is the thing that will be good for us--good for us, good for others, good for the planet--even if we know what is right and what is wrong and what we should do, we don't do it. Why is that? Because we want to deny ourselves the chance to think, do, be, good? To be true? To be accountable? Because we love ourselves, but not in a way that nurtures us, or other people, or even our planet? (sorry, J.; I guess I'll never let that one go)

The air is dirty, the landfills are full, the ozone layer is diminished, the ice fields are melting, the seas are rising. We invaded and destroyed a country for a lie. Lies. We murder each other. We're angry. We don't stop. We prevaricate. We hedge. We rationalize. We allow ourselves to live venal lives and we tell ourselves we are spiritual and good and right. But we aren't. We aren't.

So hey, you have to start someplace, right? Start by recycling. Do some good.

Posted by JudyLa at 06:00 AM | Comments (0)