Earth Day 2009 - irony
Sarah and I were planning on going to the local Earth Day celebration this past Saturday. It's a gathering downtown on the river, in one of my favorite spots in the City. Sawyer Point is a nice area, and I really like that they have events there almost all summer, every weekend.
Now, I said we were planning on going. I heard this thought in my head 'you should go to the park.' Interesting. We'd been planning on going to this Earth Day fest for a couple weeks.
I took a mental note of my mental thought and moved on with my morning.
After our Cincy-Artists meeting at C4Yourself gallery, a friend walks up and tells me he'd just gone for a walk. When I asked where to, he said "Newport." Four miles round trip. That is awesome.
Then I asked him about Earth day and if he saw any of the preparations for the day. He said that he did see some people with vans setting up and carrying boxes covered in Chinese writing. Seriously.
That was the moment I knew I was supposed to go to the park. My mind snapped to "don't they know how much fuel was burned/used to get that stuff over here?" The IRONY! But, it wasn't solely for this reason I did not go.
I would have seen friends and been able hang out. Even now I think to myself, "it's not every day that they have an earth-friendly fest going on downtown. You missed it!" Why did I go to the park? I mean, it's open every day.
My celebration needed to be internal and peaceful. As great as a public celebration is fun (and it probably was!), I realized that my celebration needed to be different. This world is beautiful! And Devou Park was the perfect place for it. (Check out my facebook profile pic...Devou is where the pic is taken)
"Green-Washing" has become the trend. You can now buy so many items that are green, using renewable resources, using less, etc. I'm a big fan of these things, but they are still just things. I owe the reference to the term "Green-Washing" to Dan K. Consuming more stuff just because it's green is not the movement I think we need to see. Don't buy stuff because it's green. Buy stuff cause you need it! ...and then make sure it's green.
Simplicity is the movement. I think that simplifying is the goal. I don't need all the things that I think I need. A lot of them are wants. If I don't buy everything on my "want" list, I can invest a little more in the "need" category for the things I do need, and I can make sure they are locally grown/made/sold/made by friends.
"Thanks for the earth, Dad.
Its colors are so many;
so well molded,
intricately aligned,
simply so we can behold it
Your Love in it we can find"
-david.chapdelaine
Now, I said we were planning on going. I heard this thought in my head 'you should go to the park.' Interesting. We'd been planning on going to this Earth Day fest for a couple weeks.
I took a mental note of my mental thought and moved on with my morning.
After our Cincy-Artists meeting at C4Yourself gallery, a friend walks up and tells me he'd just gone for a walk. When I asked where to, he said "Newport." Four miles round trip. That is awesome.
Then I asked him about Earth day and if he saw any of the preparations for the day. He said that he did see some people with vans setting up and carrying boxes covered in Chinese writing. Seriously.
That was the moment I knew I was supposed to go to the park. My mind snapped to "don't they know how much fuel was burned/used to get that stuff over here?" The IRONY! But, it wasn't solely for this reason I did not go.
I would have seen friends and been able hang out. Even now I think to myself, "it's not every day that they have an earth-friendly fest going on downtown. You missed it!" Why did I go to the park? I mean, it's open every day.
My celebration needed to be internal and peaceful. As great as a public celebration is fun (and it probably was!), I realized that my celebration needed to be different. This world is beautiful! And Devou Park was the perfect place for it. (Check out my facebook profile pic...Devou is where the pic is taken)
"Green-Washing" has become the trend. You can now buy so many items that are green, using renewable resources, using less, etc. I'm a big fan of these things, but they are still just things. I owe the reference to the term "Green-Washing" to Dan K. Consuming more stuff just because it's green is not the movement I think we need to see. Don't buy stuff because it's green. Buy stuff cause you need it! ...and then make sure it's green.
Simplicity is the movement. I think that simplifying is the goal. I don't need all the things that I think I need. A lot of them are wants. If I don't buy everything on my "want" list, I can invest a little more in the "need" category for the things I do need, and I can make sure they are locally grown/made/sold/made by friends.
"Thanks for the earth, Dad.
Its colors are so many;
so well molded,
intricately aligned,
simply so we can behold it
Your Love in it we can find"
-david.chapdelaine
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