So folks, here we is, the Toys R Us time of year with the hyped expectations and hollow promises of new stuff being true happiness and making everything all better! Time to consume, go into debt and buy stuff for other people? Please consider that we are on the environmental edge if not well beyond it. Do we really need more “stuff”?
Here we are, 2014, with endless wars, fracking poisoning the aquifers, Merry Nukes a spewing, tarsands a piping, (you know the tune) GMO allergens hopping, and the commons of nature-ecosystems, being obliterated by egosystems of greed, gluttony, ownership and profit as more valuable than clean air, pure water, or healthy soil.
Perhaps the best gifts we can give, are our actions and involvement in a world worth living in for future life? Perhaps living diverse environments have more value, and are more loving, kind, and generous presents to those we love (and all other life) than a bunch of shiny disposable products, and the resultant landfills and wastelands, black water, brown air and toxic soils, remaining where life once lived?
I wonder what that radical Jesus dude would be doing, or what he would think of the ways we live and treat each other and all life? No food in Somalia? Let’s send cake?
We treat the earth as an unlimited piggy bank and we trade our lives for money and stuff. Too few of us look at the remains, as we drive in circles.
Let’s look in our own trashcans, packed with lifeless “goo” we throw “away” continually. There is NO away, but there are toxic wastelands, dead waterways, and lousy air. Cancel your garbage service.
Do look into our trash, because it IS the future we are leaving. Impossible you say? Seriously, go live with our wastage, and consider the future.
Black Friday, Giving Tuesday, and, what are we giving back? How are we living, treating each other and all life/environments the other 362? Are we indebted consuming Neanderthals on Friday, and repentant givers of money on Tuesday, etc.? What about EVERYDAY?
Please, DO consider, the effectual slaves which make our products, and that bargain price disposable products are no bargain for the water, air, or soils.
Perhaps the best gifts are immaterial, love, community, friendships and not stuff?
Is it time to begin giving back to the environments which sustain all life, including ours?
Why not Merry Christmas, everyday?
Sierra Salin, Fairfax
