LiL Helpers

If this isn’t the epitome of caring…nothing is.

greenslist:

We’ve all been there. You pay for your pack of gum, and the clerk sticks it into a plastic bag. What about putting a gallon of milk into a plastic shopping bag? If my attention isn’t diverted by my kids, I try to stop them before it’s in the bag. To me it’s just such an unnecessary…

creativesomething:

When we feel creatively stuck – as though we can’t come up with a solution or spark a new idea – more often than not it’s our own doing.

That is to say: many times we are the reason we’re creatively stuck. We give ourselves false constraints or limit ourselves only to what we know and, as…

This is a great article on how society is apprehensive about making the green and global changes needed to sustain the planet.

As quoted by the author, Dave Pollard.

And therein lies the challenge. Most of us are not ready to do what we think we “should” do to relearn essential skills and be responsible pacifists, reformists or resisters.

The reasons we are not ready are:

1. Too busy: We are too busy looking after the needs of the moment (ours and our loved ones’), after which we are too exhausted to do anything else (except reward ourselves with easy, fun activities, and recharge for tomorrow’s work and struggle — Pollard’s Law);
2. Hopeful it won’t actually be needed: We are (and this is human nature) hopeful that perhaps it isn’t as bad as we thought and something or someone will come along to make all this effort unnecessary;
3. Afraid of the risks: We are afraid of being wrong, or ridiculed, or ostracized, or hurt, or arrested or worse, if we try to be reformists or resisters (“can’t you ever say anything positive; I don’t want to hear about bad things I can’t change”);
4. Doubtful of its effectiveness: We are pessimistic that our efforts at reform or resistance will actually achieve any real, sustained results (“we though having a Democrat in the White House would change everything”);
5. Afraid to know how bad it really is: We are afraid of not being able to handle knowing the truth of how awful things really are if we become front-line reformers or resisters (“I visited a factory farm and now I’m a basket case — we have to change this, but we can’t”);
6. Too dependent on existing systems: We and our loved ones are so enmeshed in the existing systems that even tiny responsible pacifist actions seem impossibly difficult (“the other kids are all going to McDonalds after the game; can you drive some of us?”).

…

Easy to say. If it were easy to do we would all be doing it.

It’s a long read but well worth it. Insightful and thought provoking.

Well, go on, what are you waiting for, click the title link.