As if all those other Earth Days were just for show, or mere practice. No, I think we’ve accomplished something over the years. Perhaps not as much as we might have… and possibly less than what is needed. But imagine how tense matters might be if the seed hadn’t been planted, and the conversation had never been engaged. The Cuyahoga River might still be burning. Acid rain may have completely denuded New England’s forests. The planetary temperature might be much warmer.
So long as one speculates – if we hadn’t started paying attention and things had gotten considerably worse, then perhaps we’d now be talking about an ‘Earth Week’. But naming days or weeks is just trimming around the edges. What really matters is the doing. Planting a tree, turning off unneeded devices, saving water, avoiding waste. What matters even more is doing positive things all the days of the year; this year and next. Making habits of doing positive things. Helping others make good choices and develop positive habits.
What we are really all about here is preserving our habitat, protecting our home for our future. The Earth itself will rocket through space with or without us. So celebrating Earth Day is really about looking out for ourselves.
Quite a few plural pronouns there. And there should be. As individuals we might not push the needle very far. As communities our efforts are magnified. Everyone benefits when our habitat is protected. Everyone has a stake in this. All our collective habits impact our habitat. Ew… a newish slogan: Habits for Habitat. [here’s hoping the Habitat for Humanity folk won’t get all brand conscious and sue me – on the other hand an order of Catholic Nuns could snag it and run].
Humanitarian Habits Helping Habitat. Healthy Habits. Harmonious Habits. Hoyhnhnm Habits [you know… the horses in Gulliver’s Travels]
We still have lots of work ahead. No time to rest on laurels. No time for horsing around. Taking a bit of time to celebrate Earth Day is fine. Taking most of our time to preserve our habitat would be even finer. Then we might save for ourselves more future years in which to celebrate more Earth Days…
Gulliver's Pulse 