(Original Post - March 2011)
It really is quite small. I mean, in the grand scheme of things - of the universe and what exists within and beyond - what difference will one juice box make?
Firstly, I’m not an extreme recycler, composter, paper towel reuser, or anything of the sort. I absolutely do recycle, I plan to set up a compost bin when the snow melts, and I turned off most lights for Earth Hour, but I don’t attack people who don’t live by Green principles and ideals. I try to suggest the importance for recycling and such, and generally I hope people draw their own conclusions about the concerning state of our world. An example of this concerning state: in one year, if every garbage truck filled in the United States was placed end-to-end, it would cover half the distance to the moon. The problem is, it’s not going to the moon. It’s staying right here. Actually, I’m pretty sure that if it were going to the moon, that would be a big problem too. Imagine garbage truck tracks erasing the tracks of the Lunar Roving vehicles; erasing Neil Armstrong's immortal footprint.
One giant leap for mankind.
I’ve been spending a bit of time in the kindergarten class of the school where I’m a teacher and counselor, and while many of the posts I write for this blog will deal with ideas my own kids evoke, there will undoubtedly be others that will come from the other short people in my life. Recently, I’m sitting in the classroom at recess break, and a kid comes over to me and starts tugging on my sleeve. The force of his tugging suggested that something was very, very wrong in the land of 5 year olds.
I turn to him, and the look on his face tells me that, yes, we are dealing with the end of the world.
“There’s a juice box in the garbage, Mr Lynch. Not in the recycling container! The garbage. Now, it’s going to be garbage and it will never be another juice box!” The horror on his face was overwhelming, if not a little amusing. But the idea was huge - Imagine if everyone in the world considered a trashed recyclable to be as abhorrent as this kid considered it to be. Yes, I absolutely realize that so many people have to fight simply for survival on a daily basis. Recycling is not the priority of many disadvantage populations because they are in a situation where all their focus is on making it from one day to the next. But for many of us, we are fortunate enough that we don't have to worry about survival and safety on a daily basis. For many of us, we have the means, the time, and dare I say, the responsibility to talk about how much we waste. This child reminded me that, from our very fortunate place in society, we need to do better.
He actually couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Short Thought: What if we all thought like this? What kind of difference could we make, and how many trucks full of garbage could we remove from the assembly line to the stars?
Actually, I wasn't entire correct earlier when I said I wasn’t a paper towel reuser – me and the kid used mine to put the juice box in the right container. One small step for man...
Just a thought - How hard do we really try? We don't have to single-handedly change the world, but ask yourself, Am I really making an effort to make a difference? A good one? It's easy to become complacent. It's even easier to be lazy.
It's hard to answer the tough questions you ask yourself.
"Human nature. Nobody does anything until it's too late..."
- Michael Crichton
Comentários