Not for our human relationships, not for the living environment.
I remember listening to a Brene Brown talk once about how in our culture, we value things that are fun, fast and easy. I don’t remember exactly what Brene had to say about this but the basic gist was fun, fast and easy does not equate to meaningful relating, real connection and love, which is what we truly need for survival. Living fun, fast and easy, as good as it sounds, ultimately equates to a very empty and lonely existence and kills the natural world too.
A recent foray into the world of online dating has confirmed the fun fast and easy value we enshrine in our convenience culture. The number of people who put on their profile that they are “chill af”, “don’t take life too seriously” and seek “no drama” is kind of off putting. Ever heard the phrase “No Friction No Movement”? Growing, evolving, creating something meaningful, having relationships with substance and caring about something, anything, is going to necessitate investing something of ourselves. That requires risk and work. To reap the rewards of living a meaningful life, feeling some sense of connection and fulfilment, you actually need to put some effort in.
Source: Paolo Oliveira
The sad story of our collective lack of effort glaringly shows up for me around single use plastic. Right now, during the covid crisis, keep cups are out and single use coffee cups are back in. There’s even an air of relief for cafes who hide behind the idea that keep cups are banned at this time by some higher power, which is completely untrue. Same for us consumers. Effort goes quickly out the window. When was the last time you bothered to question your local café as to whether they take keep cups? Or if they said no to that question, continued the conversation further. Have you sought out cafes who do take keep cups? Have you congratulated and thanked them for their turtle-saving ways?
Source: Greenpeace
Fun, fast and easy is not going to cut it. Not for our interpersonal relationships, not for our environment, and not if we want to do or achieve anything of substance, with meaning and purpose, to feel a sense of fulfilment and that we have contributed something to the greater good.
So what to do? The chances are you actually do like creating meaningful things. When you put effort in and make something beautiful, you feel really good afterwards. It’s just that our convenience culture provides a number of more appealing, readily available options that are difficult to say no to. It’s easy to rationalise the time-saving alternative when we’re all so damn BUSY.
Firstly, I think we need to change our priorities, take a good look at our values and slow the F down. Meaningful things take time. Creation takes time.
This post has traversed a number of inter-related realms. My thoughts usually do. But I am going to conclude with a number of actions (some quick, some slow) you can take right now during lockdown to help the environment. Perhaps in doing them, you’ll experience a little nudge to think about your interpersonal relationships and values too.
1. Buy coffee from cafes who take keep cups. Note: this is not illegal or prohibited during the covid epidemic. Send them some love on social media to thank them for their planet-saving ways.
2. Ditch single use plastics. There is no excuse for single use. Start small by getting yourself a groovy bamboo cutlery and straw set. Cook from scratch more instead of relying on takeaways and ultra-processed, ultra-packaged food. Buy in bulk. Your mind, body and bank account will thank you for it.
3. Grow some greens in a groovy verge veg project. Involve kids and neighbours for a little community building flavour. Make it part of your home school lessons. They won’t be boring for once and kids will actually love being outside, playing with worms instead of screens.
4. Reduce consumption of animal products, especially red meat. Look up the info graphics. Industrial animal industries are bad news in every possible way.
5. Compost! Compost and worm farms are incredibly easy to set up and maintain and are seriously magical. They make organic garbage magically disappear. No more stinky bin juice. Join the Compost Revolution to learn more!
Please leave a comment and share other pro-enviro tips and practices you have at home. Super keen to hear from you. Share the love and inspo because we’re only going to do this if we do it together.