Dear Umbra,
I am a new but faithful reader of your excellent column. I've learned a lot, but one thing I've noticed is that there never seems to be an upside to the answers. Now, this may be just because the reality sucks so much, but it depresses the hell out of me and makes me feel hopeless about ever making a difference. Even your reply to the vinyl record guy left me feeling glum, as you told him to enjoy his records but that their disposal (which will happen eventually) will have dire consequences for the earth. How do you keep positive when the news seems so bad all the time? Do you have any advice for me? I eagerly await your reply!
Ann W.
Dearest Ann and Dearest Readers All,
Happy Valentine's Week. I love you. Many kisses. Mwah, mwah, mwah. Chocolate all around. You haven't sent too many romance-related questions of late, so I'm using Ann's note to send the love.
Ann, because I love you I'm going to be honest with you. I keep positive through selective caring. It's the way we all keep positive. How can we eat breakfast every day, given what's happening in Darfur? Through deciding where we can make a difference, and understanding that there are other areas that we can know about, but not act upon, whether through choice or circumstance.
Think about the good things.
Photo: iStockphoto
I understand that in answering questions I almost always point out the ecological problems of daily life. But I think if you look more closely you'll see that I often say, "This issue is less important." I might even say, "This issue is unimportant." We have to rank our worries, and while I'm happy to answer a wide range of questions, from what to wear to what car to drive to what disposable water bottle to own for two days, I hope that I also help with perspective and priorities. I hope to let us know where our energy will truly make a difference.
Take vinyl, for example. As a result of my choice to prioritize limiting vinyl in my life, I'm pretty calm about other plastics and don't bother getting all het up when I or others can't avoid buying a bottle of water, or when I come across a plastic fork. I get het up about other things instead: Aluminum! Cars! Universal Health Care! Confined Animal Feeding Operations! New Vinyl Shower Curtains! Exurbs! By prioritizing what I care about, I can reduce the amount of despair. And while it's true that the disposal of that reader's vinyl records will be kinda dire when the time comes, I am pleased that he is reusing objects, and I think he should enjoy the music while he can.
More on how one stays positive: Involuntarily. My personal experience shows me that our minds can only compass a limited amount of information and despair at one time. Each person has his or her own limits. I know some may be mired in despair for long periods, where others have a natural emotional buoyancy. Either way, it's quite hard to keep global warming in mind every moment of the day.
A third way to keep positive is integrating a personal responsibility to make the most of every day of life. Life is a gift, whether you believe it was given by a deity or not. I'm doing what I can to make my life better, to help others' lives be better, and to get better at making things better. I know many, many others out there are doing the same. I'm showered every day by letters from concerned citizens who want to make a difference in the world. That makes me feel good. Plus, I like the world. Trees and lettuce and neighbors and family keep me positive. If you find yourself feeling hopeless, a list could help. A list of the things around you that make you happy, and/or a list of actions you are taking to make change in the world. At down moments, you could look at the list and remember that snow falling is beautiful, and that you are eating less meat.
Don't I sound like a motivational author? Stay tuned for my book, Happiness Comes From Selective Caring. Or how about, Stay Positive, Eco-Heads, Our Time Will Come? Something along those lines. Maybe even Doom and Gloom with a Sense of Humor. Although I think that one's been taken.
Cheerfully,
Umbra
Cobbling together a delicious and easy summer dessert
Ask Umbra on paperback writers
Ask Umbra on green moving companies
Comments View as Flat
triskele Posted 4:47 am
11 Feb 2008
staying positive
To Umbra's discussion about selective caring, I would add that things are SO MUCH BETTER than they were just a year or two ago. The tide of awareness has turned. When energy is at the top of many political to-do lists, and cities vie to be the most green and young evangelicals believe that they are called to take care of the planet and organic products are on ordinary grocery shelves and major manufacturers are making green cleansers and you can see bamboo clothing in mainstream catalogs....you can see hope turning to action. People are recognizing the impacts of their daily lives. And,the first step is recognizing you have a problem, right??
Combine that with some amazing technology and engineering we have available RIGHT NOW in energy, alternative product manufacturing, and many other areas... take heart. We are on the way, and we are far from alone in rolling up our sleeves to do the good work. Then, roll up your sleeves with people you like...
Permalink
sindark Posted 5:58 am
11 Feb 2008
Harm reduction
If you define an ethical life as one that doesn't involve harming others, it is impossible to be entirely ethical. As such, it seems like the best we can hope to do is reduce our negative impact. That does make life pretty depressing, but it seems to be the nature of the world in which we live.
Permalink
crisrich Posted 6:33 am
11 Feb 2008
Eckhart Tolle
Reading the books of Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now and A New Earth) has helped me a lot in trying to find a less depressed view of the situation. Following his teachings is certainly not easy. It´s something to be practiced during the whole day, every day. But it´s very worthwhile.
I also like his live presentations very much. Listen to them for half an hour every day instead of TV and it will help.
There are some excerpts of presentations on YouTube. I like to recommend this one to start with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AugWiDv17Yg&feature=re ...
Permalink
michmike Posted 7:34 am
11 Feb 2008
reason for hope
Two of my favorite authors, Peter Senge and Parker Palmer, talk about the gap between the way things are and the way we would like them to be. Senge calls it a creative gap, Palmer calls it a tragic gap.
Even tho much of society takes a head-in-the-sand approach to facing current reality, (and there is even some reason for hope in what is going on right now)the information about our multitude of complex dilemmas and missteps is out there to be seen, heard and to some degree understood if anyone cares to look.
What is missing is an articulation of the way we'd like things to be 10 or 20 years from now. "Reducing carbon emissions" for example is not a positive, aspirational vision of the future we'd like to create. It will no doubt mean reducing carbon emissions to get there, but where is there and what will it look like when we get there? What do we want the future to be like? Specifically. Not many people I know are good at convening this kind of conversation; there's too much fixation on short-term problems, a find and fix mentality driven by fear and crisis. I think we motivate too much by fear and do way too little to inspire action through hope and possibility.
I think what will catalyze dealing with short-term serious problems is a clear, no-kidding, this-is-what-we-want-to-create-together-and-this-is-what-its-going-to-take-to-get-there vision, created thru meaningful conversations community by community.
To me, leadership does not mean finding and fixing problems. It means asking the right questions and generating transformational thinking that creates new solutions and new possibilities.
So, if we continue to take a cold, hard look at current reality, and commit to a process that cultivates a shared vision of what we want to create and what it will take to get there, I think we'll generate a lot more positive energy, hope, and commitment for the long term in ourselves and others. And, I think its much more likely that we'll get a future we want to live in.
Permalink
chandanam Posted 8:05 am
11 Feb 2008
Ignorance is bliss?
Hardly!
Serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
and the Wisdom to know the difference.
I've realized that taking action and inspiring others is one way to deal with self-judgement.
I've decided to talk to my company procurement officer to stop supplying free disposable plates, styrofoam cups, plastic forks, coffee cups etc rather than trying to reach a limited number of my friends. If successful, I would be making a difference of eliminating junk generated by 500 people everyday. This success should encourage me to be more active and inspire others as well.
Anybody tried anything similar in the past? Please share your experiences. It would help me to talk to my Procurements manager.
I think Umbra should put a reminder on every post of her to make people understand where to put your efforts. I think she did give an advice like that before (fulcrum, leverage point etc) but I couldn't find it again.
My 2 cents!
Permalink
geoark Posted 8:28 am
11 Feb 2008
On staying positive
I believe staying positive and supporting each other will continue to be a critical priority for environmentally concerned citizens as we join together to develop a sustainable planet.
Things have been very dark during the last few years, as resource depleting fossil fuel oligarchs had taken over our government. Over many years as an environmental activist I have turned to meditation and other forms of personal development. More recently, however, I have developed a growing "audacity of hope" due to the many new ideas that are forming.
Much of my hope centers on the growing emergence of new fields of research such as Ecological Economics. A couple of days ago a leading Ecological Economist, Robert Costanza, spoke at a nearby University on the importance of "true costing" our economic system so that everyone will participate in converting to resource conserving technologies that pollute less.
We can "true cost" or economic system by removing taxes on labor while charging user fees for extracting minerals and pollution. Revenue raised could be put into Earth Trust funds to pay for public services, individual safety net accounts, and to restore and protect wildlife habitat. In this way the unearned increment (or windfall profit) of diminishing scarce resources such as oil can be returned to the public instead of into the pockets of people who already have billions of dollars.
Meanwhile I am very excited about the different kinds of emerging technologies that a "true-cost" economic system will catalyze. There are many wonderful resource conserving and clean energy producing technologies waiting for the true cost of oil and coal to hit us. This includes floating windmills (Magenn), Mag -Lev windmills in China (both large and small), plasma gasification (to safely eliminate the toxic garbage we produce), and a potential quantum leap in developing transportation technologies such as the PRT (personal rapid transit).
We certainly have a long way to go before humans can say we have created a sustainable planet, but I do have hope.
GeoArk
Arkansas
Permalink
j2callie Posted 1:07 pm
11 Feb 2008
Positivity
There are two organizations I can recommend that address exactly that problem of depressing gloom and doom. One is Center for a New American Dream, with positive actions and encouraging statistics on what can be accomplished if everyone actually makes those small individual changes.
They have several campaigns for "conscious consumerism", realizing it's not possible to stop consuming but showing the effect of those collective changes.
Pertinent to your post is their campaign for Responsible Purchasing and they even have a new 9-min video to watch online. Perhaps you can make the introduction to your purchasing department armed with this background -- or even maybe you can show it to them!
The other organization is Yes! Magazine, published by the Positive Futures Network.
Besides the quarterly print issue, they have email newsletters for general readership (including one in Spanish), and also make a concerted effort toward education -- not only offering an email newsletter with lesson suggestions, but also several curricula AND a year's free subscription to the print magazine.
Anyone could benefit from the organized education information - since we are all "teachers", if only by example.
Permalink
Gatta Posted 1:20 pm
11 Feb 2008
Let There Be Music!
Just out of idle curiosity (I have a lot of that), before we decide that our ancient LPs are the work of the Evil Empire, what exactly are CDs and DVDs made of? And for that matter, what are the "jewel cases" they come in made of? My LPs, which I'm not parting with until they cart me out feet first, are in nice, biodegradable cardboard envelopes, though I hope right-thinking people will want to adopt them and preserve them long after I'm gone.
Permalink
jacaranda Posted 10:00 pm
11 Feb 2008
feeling positive
Quote from Walter Mosley, from "What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace"
"Every day that we wake up is a good day. Every breath that we take is filled with hope for a better day. Every word that we speak is a chance to change what is bad into something good."
Permalink
rglatz Posted 2:07 pm
17 Feb 2008
staying positive
I reread sayings by other people. I always go back to Einstein's sayings about giving and service to others:
"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." and
"A person first starts to live when he can live outside himself."
and to put things into perspective, this next one reminds me to "smell the roses"
I think over again my small adventures,
My Fears,
Those small ones that seem so big
For all the vital things I had to get
and to reach.
And yet there is only the great thing,
The only thing.
To live and see the great day that dawns,
And the light that fills the world. Inuit song
I saw this at the end of the movie "Never Cry Wolf"
Permalink