Would you take piano lessons from someone who breaks pianos with a sledgehammer but doesn’t play?

March 30, 2020 by Joshua
in Nature

Would you take piano lessons from someone who breaks pianos with a sledgehammer but doesn’t play?

Does it matter how many books on music theory that person read? If they don’t play but only break pianos, you probably are going to learn more how to break pianos than to play them. If you learn anything about the piano, it will probably be theory at best.

Then don’t take advice on the environment from someone who flies around willy-nilly and doesn’t live sustainably.

More important, I recommend not being someone who sledgehammers pianos, pollutes the environment, or gives advice on it. Most people give themselves advice on how to act environmentally. If you pollute a lot, you’ll probably give specious, self-serving, fatuous advice that leads to you hurting others.

You didn’t cause the pollution you were born into. It’s not your fault that the Earth is overpopulated. It’s not fair that the only way you can enjoy what past generations did without hurting people and wildlife—from the people displaced from their land to drill the oil to future generations who have to live in the polluted land, to the military who risk their lives to defend the oil supply lines to the people who breathe the pollution your vehicle causes, to future generations that have to inhale, drink, and eat that pollution, and so on.

But you live in that world and you can choose to support that system with your money and time or oppose it.

You will love opposing it

The crazy result nobody expects is that however much you would love to do the polluting things past generations could in ignorant bliss of whom they hurt, you will love that much more to appreciate and steward what little remains.

Everybody associates flying with seeing distant lands, seeing distant loved ones, and making money, so they associate not flying with not learning about the world, never seeing loved ones again, and losing money.

That’s sledgehammer thinking. It’s fun to break things with a sledgehammer. The more you practice piano, the more beauty you find in it and you find that you can create.

You can feel sorry for yourself that the only way you can do what others did is to knowingly hurt people. You can just keep doing it, twisting yourself up inside, and shoving down those feelings, lowering your self-awareness.

Or you can take responsibility for yourself and how your behavior affects others. Ask any parent or pet owner to learn the joys of stewardship despite the loss of personal freedom.

You will love the emotional and physical rewards of stewardship more than anything you feel you sacrifice. You don’t have to take my word for it. You can try it. The outcome sounds crazy. How can anyone like not getting to do what they want when they want more than refraining?

Only experience can answer that question. People will follow you. They’ll look up to you.

Put away the sledgehammer and play some scales.

Read my weekly newsletter

On initiative, leadership, the environment, and burpees

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Leave a Reply

Sign up for my weekly newsletter