Of course I can’t know how other people feel about the news we’re hearing this week about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but I can tell you that the stories are breaking my heart...so much so that I’d like to say something about the story here...but what to say and how to say it, well I’m afraid I feel the need to tread lightly.
I mean, on the one hand, I consider this forum to be diary-ish, kind of personal. I can write my feelings and if you don’t happen to like them, well then you can go someplace else. On the other hand, I don’t want you to go someplace else. I don’t really want to talk to an empty room.
Not only do I like talking with you, I have to add that my feelings about the oil spill might come off sounding like I’m telling other folks how to live or what their values should be. I don’t want to be a Mister Bossy Pants.
But I'm afraid that I have a diplomatic problem because a phrase keeps popping into my head as, with each passing day, the oil spill gets worse and worse. That phrase is: “If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” Nearly all of us drive cars and we all consume energy. The oil that's causing such problems in the Gulf was being pumped out of the sea floor because you and I buy gasoline, and oil companies are more than happy to drill for it and sell it to us.
Maybe we can all try to drive a bit less, consolidate the trips we do make?
But what about the food we eat? Many experts point out that locally-produced foods get from a farm to our table with far less fuel burned in shipping and transportation than strawberries grown in Mexico or grapes that came from Chile.
Leah and I went (by bike, I might add) to our town’s Farmers’ Market last Saturday. We bought fresh, in-season local produce, grown by our neighbors or folks who live just a few miles away. We also visited and chatted with smiling, congenial vendors and other market-goers (how many good conversations do you have with your fellow human beings when you're engaged in get-out-of-my-way shopping combat with the hoards at Costco, where much of the produce has been transported from half-a-country or half-a-world away?)
I suspect being thoughtful consumers is something that we all can work on to be part of a solution.
