August 23rd 2010 - Under The Guise of Green

I found the piece of paper in the photo as a piece of litter in the street. If you can't read it clearly, it says "I'M IN THE MARKET FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE TOMORROW." The irony of finding a piece of paper like this in the street brought me to the realization that a sustainable American society is still far from reality. It's really just lip service at this point. Not too many people are really serious about it.

Corporate America is rushing to push out products that Americans perceive as green, whether or not they really are. Hybrid cars are a great example. I just quickly Googled for statistics on the carbon emissions of hybrid cars, and I found this: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/hybrid_sbs_cars.shtml Granted these statistics are for 2007 models, so maybe we're doing a bit better now, but the vehicles studied had average annual greenhouse gas emissions of anywhere from 3.4 TONS (Toyota Prius) to 8 TONS (Lexus GS 450h). Yes. You read it right. That's annual TONS for one, single vehicle. And those are the HYBRIDS!

What I really want to say is that only Nature is really green. Only when we truly understand that we must cooperate with Nature, rather than just extract everything we can take from Nature, make a packaged and/or disposable product out of it, and then throw the package or used product into a dump, will we achieve sustainability.

The meaning of sustainability has not even entered into most peoples' awareness, yet. Unsustainable means it can't be sustained without causing damage and/or death. Unsustainable means that if you continue to do things the same way, you are eventually going to have to take some measures to reverse the damage (measures which will probably be more expensive than if we just would have done it right in the first place), or, worse, you may reach a point of irreversible damage. Some scientists believe that we've already done irreversible damage to many ecosystems. That was BEFORE the Gulf spill.

Taking our own bags to the grocery store is a nice start, but it's a drop in the bucket, frankly. What are we filling those reusable bags with? What are we buying? Why are we buying it? What will the impact be? How many people are really even bringing reusable bags, anyway?

I know that many companies are making efforts to reduce packaging, using more energy-efficient manufacturing processes, etc. I don't know that they are the majority. The best we can do now is consume less, and be smart about what we consume. I'm not sure it will make much of a difference. Not unless just about everybody starts acting that way. It sure won't help the economy, but maybe what we really need is a new economy that runs in concert with Nature. Sounds a little touchy-feely? A bit tree-hugging liberal? May sound that way, but I'm fairly certain it's the only way to sustain life in the long-term.

Naturally Yours,

Alan

August 6th 2010 - The Newborn

I really don't know why I am writing about this. The idea came to me a a week or two ago. I'm just feeling to share it, so I won't doubt that the message should go out. Sometimes when I send something out, someone says that the timing was pefect for them to receive the message. So, here it goes.

A lot of times we judge a newborn child based upon how we perceive its parents. Instead of seeing the child as its own independent entity, we imagine that it will grow up and be just like its parents. We imagine that it will make the same choices and mistakes. Many children transcend the parents, though. There are many stories of children of very common parents who became great leaders, scientists, entertainers, etc. There must also be multitudes of cases of not-so-famous people who managed to be something totally different than their parents.

A newborn child is pure potentiality. When we view the newborn as a perfect being, with unlimited potential, no matter how its parents seem, we can see a more truthful reality. Just as we should not judge a person by the way he or she appears, we should not judge a child, who has hardly even lived, by the nature of its parents. The child is its own individual, who will eventually make its own choices, and could have the seeds of greatness within, despite unremarkable parents.

Actually, I believe that every child has the seeds of greatness within. I think its mostly a matter of whether the child figures it out, often by someone else bringing it to the child's attention. Obviously, it's more recognizable in some than others. Things aren't always what they seem, though. Greatness, of course, is subject to personal interpretation. Perhaps we are each serving a greater function on Earth than any of us knows, even the most common of us.

Have A Great Weekend!

Alan

P.S. One of the most important truths that I have ever learned is that "Things aren't always what they seem." Most of the time, you can't see the truth with your eyes. Sometimes the miracles around you have to penetrate you at a deeper level than the senses.