Our community came together last Saturday for a very cool event, a yearly Earth Day gathering called EcoFest. There was a full day of amazing live fiddle music and singing, and mounds of great food. The primary focus of the festival, however, was found at 30-some informational booths where folks could pick up tips about sustainable living (I was host of a booth about bicycling.) I couldn’t help but be reminded of a number of observations Mahatma Gandhi had made.
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
During my 25-year career as a newspaper photographer, I carefully avoided personal activism in politics or other issues I might one day be assigned to cover. I felt it was my professional responsibility as a journalist to be an observer and a documentarian, not a participant.
“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”
Now that I’m a “civilian,” I’m learning to live like a real human being who has freedom to engage in the real world. My bike booth was something I volunteered to organize to help people make cycling a viable transportation option for getting around on a car-dominated landscape. I handed out hundreds of maps of cycling routes; I gave away safety “blinky” lights that I got from the county transit agency, and free bike tire patch kits and lip balm that bike advocate New Belgium Brewery donated.
“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result”
As I brainstormed what my bike booth might offer, I heard about a local company that markets electric-assisted bicycles and scooters. Aware of the reality that not everyone is as gung-ho about riding a human-powered bike as I am, I invited the electric bike company into my pedal-powered tent.
As I strolled around the grounds at EcoFest, I was amazed by all that I saw. There were booths about worms and composting, about native plants, about fish and wildlife. I saw a great horned owl that could not survive in the wild and has been rescued by a local wildlife shelter. I was impressed that so many people were doing so much for the greater good. Again, I thought about Gandhi:
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
