A Call to Action. A Plea for our Planet

Ok, let’s talk about sustainability.  Sustainability is a terribly trendy word these days. You hear it out of the mouths of politicians, celebrities, and activist alike.  But let’s bring it down out of the mouths of the trendy and beautiful folks, and put it into our lexicon.  It needs to be removed from the hemisphere of the people who “might” be able to make a difference and into our hands, so we CAN make a difference.  Those fancy people might be able to make a difference and you can leave the responsibility to them but in doing that we are ignoring our secret weapon to promote sustainability.  We are ignoring the fact that instead of HOPING someone else will do something, we here on the ground could ACTUALLY do something.  Yes, a huge part of the problem is the corporations and big business, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t a huge part of the solution.

Sustainability as defined by “Dictionary.com” is, “the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.”  But that is pretty broad definition.  What does that really mean?  Does it mean that you turn off the lights when you leave a room?  Does it mean that you bring your own bags to the store?  Does it mean that you ride your bike or carpool instead of driving somewhere?  How about turning off the water when you are washing your dishes?  Or using recycled water to water your garden?  Could it even mean choosing to eat local, organically grown produce? Or cutting down your waste by half? 

There are so many ways to being your sustainability journey, big and small.   Our big step in life was to become a vegetarian household.  Now this isn’t the choice for everyone, and I totally understand that.  But, in doing my research, I have discovered that it is one of the best things individuals and families can do to help combat climate change.  To be fully honest, our family’s vegetarianism was not prompted by a decision of sustainability.  I became a vegetarian over ten years ago.  I actually don’t remember the specific date or year count at this point, but I know our wedding had vegetarian options.  I became a vegetarian because as I grew up, I grew out of my taste for meat.  Then about six years later, my husband, who had always been a dyed in the wool meat eater, discovered massive moral compunctions with the consumption of animals.  Neither of us sat down and discussed the fact that there is limited time that our earth can sustain humanity and our questionable choices, but it feels good that our life choices are making steps towards caring for our earth.

I guess since our big family sustainability decision was a veritable accident, we now get to make conscious choices for our support of the earth.  So far, we have decided to reuse the plastic Ziploc bags we bought over four years ago.  When I made this choice to move towards a healthier interaction with the planet, we had literally just bought a whole Costco box of Ziplocs.  I was daunted by this very obvious choice of non-sustainability; I couldn’t just give them away or throw them out.  That would have been counterproductive in my quest.  So, I beefed up my collection of glass Tupperware and bought a bag drying rack.  Now, every plastic bag that I use gets plopped to the side of our sink until the collection is too much for me to bear.  I turn them all inside out, give them a good once over and then let them dry on my very fancy, (not really) very useful drying rack.  And then they are good to go for the third, or seventh, or fifteenth time.  I have not bought a single box of snack bags for years now. 

I recently read “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn for my book club.  The discussion that ensued was possibly the longest and most involved that had been inspired over my time in the club.  There was much discussion across the board, stretching the whole gamut of the book.  One of the biggest takeaways I got from that discussion was that of the mentality of a “Taker” and that of a “Leaver”.  A “Taker” holds the ideals of, not surprisingly, of taking what they “need”.  And what they need may not be just what gets them through the day and the next but far more than that.  They take and hoard.  They were the people of the pandemic who bought 100 rolls of toilet paper when all they really needed were 5.  On fact, we live in a society of takers.  I’m not blaming anyone here.  It is so difficult to try and be a leaver in a society of takers. To trust that there will still be some left after everyone else.  We are conditioned to grab anything and everything that we think should be ours.  We are conditioned to live the life of the “American Dream” where we can be anything we want to be and can have anything we want. But do we really need EVERYTHING we want?  Can we start to move away from living so large? Can we simplify and let go?  Can we be leavers instead?

As I look around my house, I see so many things that I could reuse.  Or that I could not have bought, in the spirit of sustainability.  At our last house, before we had twins, I had reduced our garbage to one of the mini cans every week.  And I was so proud of that.  Now that we have four children, twin nine-month-olds at that, I have sort of lost sight of that goal.  But now as I fill the large trash can that we need so badly, I realize that there is change to be made.  I realize that I need to look around our house and figure out what I can do to make our house that of a leaver family, that of a family focuses on sustainability.  I never intended to have four children, but adore each one, and every day I feel the weight of the world collapsing around them. Every day I fear the worst is only yet to come and have such responsibility to change that for them.  We only have a few years to really make a difference. And we so badly need to make the shift.  To actively search out and find those things that you too can do.  It won’t be changing the minds of the big business or rich elite in power, but you can still make a difference.  WE can still make a difference.  Aria and I are going to do our best here to give you all as many ideas and plans as we can.  We want to share our movement forward and hope that it can inspire our readers to do the same.  We are a force to be reckoned with and know that you are too.  Let’s join and make this world the place we want our kids to raise kids in.  Take the chance. Take the risk.  Make the change.  Please, for all of us. Please.