Four years left to make the change!!!

I've been trying to write some personal essays that I might one day publish, without offending anyone I know. Is that possible? Friends, family, neighbors...it doesn't even matter anymore. I've gone back and edited my words several times to come across in a less harsh manner.

And then on the recommendation of one of the Canon Food Co-op members, Richard and I watched a film/documentary entitled  The Age of Stupid. Thanks Judy for the heads up on this one. Everyone should most certainly watch this film. At the end of this movie, I sat, mouth agape (I could feel it hanging open), on the verge of tears, ready to start a revolution to save humanity and our planet from the annihilation of consumerism. I knew it was bad, but every single time I see one of these films, I get frightened by how bad it really is.

So, no, I don't care who I offend any more. Most of my family and friends live in this capitalistic world that is hell bent on its own destruction. No one wants to believe any of the environmental "whispers" they hear by accident while flipping through channels. They are quick to dismiss the words of scientists on global warming because one of the speakers has a nice house, a nice car...a private jet? Can't recycle now. He's the hypocrite.

More of the same old BS. Like in the film, when people in England were so set against wind turbines in their neighborhoods because it would ruin the view and bring their property values down. But, they are environmentally aware, they claim. What is this craziness? What about the power poles and electric lines that run next to highways and streets? Don't those ruin the view? Or have they become invisible to most people because they've been  there so long?

Ultimately, it doesn't matter and we have to rethink beauty. I find anything that will save the planet for my kids to be downright irresistible. To look across a green field and see those windmills turning, bringing everyone clean energy, now that would be a gorgeous sight to behold. Solar on every rooftop and in open fields here in the southwest where the sun shines 325 days a year. Yeah, I think that would be the prettiest thing I ever saw, knowing that life on our planet could continue because of those big giant, spinning flowers of the prairie.

We are running out of time. I knew this too, but somehow forgot that the crucial factor is how long we have before the damage we have done to our planet is irreversible, before we really sign our death sentence, the end of all humanity. All humanity...as in extinction. Is that hard to understand? The year at the end of this test of humanity is 2015. That is in four years. Four years to change it all before we can no longer turn around our fast train to global destruction and a hell only imagined in the Bible.

I'm afraid. Really afraid that if we don't open our eyes and try to act like the civilized people we claim to be, there will be no green grass, no trees and no food for my children when they reach adulthood. This is real people. I don't care who I offend anymore. What if we crazy environmental dooms-dayers turn out to be wrong, as Richard always argues...what will we have to show for our possible erroneous prediction? A cleaner, greener, more peaceful world where all the citizens are equally entitled to energy and food and clean water? A world that values the advancement of spirit rather than Ego in its climb for more dollars? How can that be a bad thing? Maybe we will have a world that we all enjoy living in for a few more centuries.

How truly bizarre to be alive in a time where I could witness my species extinction. That's got to be the scariest thing I've ever thought about. Worse than my own death. My heart is racing now as I energize with the desire to make a difference, to convince more people that only we, the people here now, can change the outcome of this story. Only we, as a group, can say no to the politicians and demand clean energy, clean food, clean medicine and a future planet to live on. Stop buying crap people!!!! What do you really need?

Today we went to the grocery store, and with this movie fresh in my head, I looked at the customers around me and noticed, to my horror, that we, my own little family of four, were the only ones out of ten checkout lanes that had brought our own cloth, reusable grocery bags. It's hopeless. Pathetic. Maybe we are committing suicide as a culture, as a species because we don't value ourselves enough. Is the dollar more important than the future of our children? Is it really? Think long and hard about what you as a citizen of this planet are willing to do to save the earth.

I've decided to boycott consumer based Christmas. It'll be the great Xmas Boycott of 2011. No shopping. No consuming. No support of corporate capitalism. My rules? Well, if it's hand made out of recycled materials, I can give it...a card, a doll, a rug, a purse, a tin man, whatever. Food made from wholesome organic materials are good too. Time...just time spent with loved ones should be enough. Or giving to a charity in someone else's name is a great gift. Make it an organization that is doing its part to save the planet. No lights this year---wasted energy. If I get a wrapped gift, I'll give it to a local charity, unopened. I realize that that may spoil the fun, and offend the giver, but a manufactured item might sneak its way into my Christmas boycott. Wrapped gifts...maybe next year...no, wait. let's give up commercial Christmas altogether. No more wrapping paper and bows. Unless you make them. I always thought gifts wrapped in material would be cool. You could save up the years and make a quilt one day. No mail ordered items. Keep it local. Planes are one of the biggest contributors to the world destruction. And, let's just have Christmas on one day...say the 25th, or the 21st in support of the winter solstice. No other days. You snooze, you lose. Didn't get it there, didn't get it made, too bad. It's over. Let's stop playing the consumer game and hit them when they need it most...the holidays. Oh, you think some people might go out of business? Yippee!!! Reduce. If we want to save our world, we have to take big, giant steps. Four years. Four years. And people should find better ways to spend their work days than feeding the corporate machine.

What are you going to do today to make a change? Make it big. You don't need another pair of shoes or a new power tool. You do need a planet to live on.

Join me in the Christmas Boycott of 2011. Maybe if enough people stop shopping (no more Black Friday) then we can hit the corporate giants where it hurts. Oh, and stop eating fast food, and take your own bags to the grocery store. Stop being lazy. Stop blaming others. Stop pretending it doesn't matter. Jesus would want you all to save your home planet, and would probably support the Christmas Boycott of 2011 on the basis that He never preached materialism or dreamed that His birthday would be turned into such an atrocity.

Am I offending anyone yet? Well, I'm offended by the greed and stupidity of Western society. I'm offended that the dollar means more than the planet. I'm offended that so many people shut their eyes to the reality of global warming. I'm offended that my children and all the little, innocent ones all over the world don't mean enough to my own family and my community to save. I'm offended and fed up. I will not stop talking. I will not shut up. Everywhere I go. Everyone I meet. "Do you recycle?" I will ask. "Do you believe in human extinction enough to do your part to make it a reality?" Congratulations...you win the end of the world!!! That will be some reality show, won't it?