We are living our daily lives almost as usual while our planet quickly dies by poison, fire, flood, greed and by the cold calculation of huge companies that are doing most of the destruction. But we can’t point the finger at them and accuse them of doing it alone!
No, we are supporting them to do it by actively looking for happiness in the objects of their making. We think we need a new TV or we won’t be happy. We need a new set of kitchen cupboards or we won’t be happy. We need a new car or we won’t be happy … even though all those things are a replacement for perfectly functioning possessions that we have already.
We are looking in the wrong place for our happiness. We soon find out that the happiness fades as we sit watching big companies tell us that we need a newer something to make us happy. And we are listening.
That kind of jolt; watching our new car pull up into the driveway or the 72” TV being installed over the fireplace lasts until your child develops asthma from playing hockey in closed arenas, or your mother comes down with COVID-19 because we have degraded the environment enough to develop exotic diseases, or you have a heated argument with your partner over the colour of your new car. Can your new TV make that better? We have been sold a lifestyle that is killing us and we are going meekly to the slaughter along with our beautiful planet …our home.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, “…a team of scientists calculated that in 2020, human-made materials reached 1.1 trillion tons, exceeding the mass of all living things on the planet, which includes people, bacteria, plants and animals combined.”
You don’t have to be a scientist to get that we can’t keep going like this and give all children a world that feeds them and gives them space to grow and flourish if we keep basing our economies on greed and persuasion to want more … of everything!
Let’s regain our grandparents’ outlook on life, “If you possibly can, fix it. If you can’t, find another creative use for it. If you have no need for it, share it with others. Put it in the attic or the barn until you can find a way to repurpose it.” We have been sold the absurd idea that the supply of material things is unlimited. So how do you keep that going on a limited planet? No matter what the media says about Bezos’s or Branson’ s ideas of space travel, this is it. There is no planet “B”!
Get your real and lasting high from kindness, honesty, serving others, taking care of the planet you live on. That kind of high is more lasting, more satisfying, and offers you a steady stream of genuine happiness.
Gerry Walsh,
Erin