When talking about environmental issues, a solemn, funereal atmosphere often colors the argument, and we are enticed to look at something as simple as recycling as a matter of life and death. Whatever happened to doing things for the sheer pleasure of doing them?
It’s not always environmental issues that are treated like this. It seems to me, more and more Americans feel the need to hold a gun to their heads to do anything, from recycling, to going to work, to losing a few pounds. Recycling that newspaper is much more gratifying when we don’t think of it as a minor act to avert the coming apocalypse, but rather do it because we want to live more in harmony with the earth, and take pleasure in knowing that’s what we’re doing.
There’s another more fundamental problem with viewing our actions through such a dark lens. If you don’t like doing something, and have to resort to trickery and coercion to make yourself to do it, you probably will end up doing the same thing I do. And that is not to do it at all. This has obvious implications for the state of the earth should everyone take this path.
Luckily, there are quite a few people in society who do truly enjoy living their lives more in harmony with Mother Earth. But for the rest of us, the solution is simple –lighten up. Think of it this way, not only will you be helping our earth, but you will be helping yourself. And what is more important than that?
Wed, May 28, 2008
Green Living