Nonjudgment

The other day someone pushed back, as usual, about flying. For most people who fly, flying hurts people more than anything else they do through polluting, depleting, funding lobbyists, funding advertising, displacing people from their homes, etc. He started responding by saying, "The problem is that everyone has to see family ..." After he finished his whole answer, I pointed out not "everyone" flies to see family. Most Americans live within driving distance of their families. In the rest of the world, nearly no one lives flying-distance from families. We're so spoiled and entitled from the perks of being at the top of a dominance hierarchy we don't know how spoiled and entitled we are. The guy I was talking to was an environmentalist, and…

A friend reminded me of a life lesson we could all use in facing our environmental symptoms. In her words: "I never had a more optimistic outlook than when things were going to shit." Her context: A crippling disease She got a disease that would take a lot of work to heal. She probably wouldn't die, but could suffer lifelong symptoms. Her clothing and showers hurt where her skin had blistered. She took medication so toxic that the hospital gave her a special toilet to collect her waste to keep it separate from the city plumbing. Her response: To dig deeper It sounded brutal and traumatic, but she said that having to work and being part of a team working together gave her optimism. She…

I heard someone speaking on nature conservation. After he spoke someone in the audience described how people who promote conservation in words but don't practice it in deed often call people who also practice it pushing too hard, too self-righteous, or the like. The speaker responded: "Yes, they blame me for their guilt." The statement rang true. People acting against their own values feel guilty not because others who act according to those values speak, but because of their own consciences. It's facile, though spurious, to conclude that because someone else's words made feelings of guilt (or shame, helplessness, hopelessness, despair, etc) enter their consciousness that that person caused those feelings, or intended to cause those feelings. Only a person's own conscience can make them…

If you think living in an apartment disconnected from the electric grid in Manhattan is hard, you haven't had to deal with talking to people about sustainability when you're doing it. People seem compelled to tell me their half-assed "sustainability" practices, nearly always self-righteously, as it they want my approval. I don't look forward to people bragging, even less when their bragging doesn't follow from whatever half-assed thing they did. Sometimes they avoid straws, others they eat less meat, and so on. They always talk about meaningless actions, but they always seem self-satisfied. Then if I comment anything less than praise they insist I'm judging them. They're judging! Saying or implying they're doing good is judgment. They're annoying, acting as if they aren't looking for…