Play
Most think of work as the opposite of play. But some of those most productive actually enjoy what they're doing, so (besides the money they make) working can be fun for them. At the miner/farmer's family farm in West Virginia I worked at years ago, I remember children eagerly digging potatoes at harvest time.
Doing something positive that suits you kicks in the miraculous - you're enjoying yourself so much you don't get tired (and you're more likely to do a better job). That's how I feel when someone compliments me on my "hard work" nurturing Everybody's Garden. "I'm enjoying myself," I say.
I hate to sound like an anti-capitalist, but too often the money system pushes us to do things we don't really want to. "Gotta make that money" is driving people all over the world to: cut down forests; go deeper into the oceans and ground for oil and gas; continue believing in nuclear power despite the pollution from Fukushima and a thousand other nuclear accidents; war over resources rather than find ways to cooperate to more efficiently use them; continue extincting fish and other wildlife via harvesting.
If we could liberate our imaginations (like children do playing), we could find many ways to be productive without harming. Here's an example:
Look at all that biodegradable waste we send to the trash. I was in the Strip shopping the other day and noticed in an alley a grocery's trash just overflowing with organic matter waiting to be picked up by the garbage crew. Knowing as I do how dysfunctional our waste management has become, with organic matter going to some distant landfill (at great cost for both labor and transportation)(and burning huge amounts of gasoline to get there) only to ferment to put methane and carbon dioxide greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, I couldn't help but feel hurt that we're still doing that. Years ago I queried Strip retailers about pre-sorting cardboard and other biodegradables to be composted nearby, but gave up finally when I found out that BFI had become interested in contracting to own that waste stream and had no interest in sharing the details with little old me. So, one more time, the profit motive gets in the way of good sense. Composting nearby, I knew, could be done without either smell or health hazard, saving transportation costs for a material that degrades into something with 80% less volume and so much easier to transport. But I didn't look like a business man (and still don't). It is a continuing pattern with human relations that those with the vision to see the long-term wide-angle good (including financial) for the most people are the ones who are thought by the decision-makers with the most wherewithal to be financially unwise. So here we are all these years later still wasting our organic waste. It leads me to conclude that in many ways we humans only learn, only are willing to change, when we are forced by crisis.
But trying to motivate people by fear (such as delineating how many ways the planet is in maximum danger now) is a mistake - scared people freeze up and make even worse (short-term small-context) decisions. So, oddly enough, I find myself coming to the conclusion that the way through this mess we're in is to relax and enjoy, celebrating the Earth's beauty and being grateful for what we have, letting our imaginations joyfully produce the cooperative ideas kids are constantly coming up with when they want to play.
Long years of logic, reading, and discussion have led me to the conclusion that we humans are not the only life forms with consciousness or the ability to experience love or enjoy playing. Too many times we stodgy adults have come to incorrect assumptions that are less idealistic than those of children. It is the children on farms who more often grieve at the ("necessary") butchering of animals for food. Adults so often think they're being "realistic" when they express cynicism that a better world is possible than the one we currently are co-creating. "Get real" they say when you try to tell them we don't need fossil fuels or the polluting nuclear power plants. "Good luck with that" they say when you tell them the people in a tough neighborhood can get along well enough to have a community garden in which all are welcome. Well, yes, our gardens have had problems, from vandalism to people accidentally being destructive because they don't know how you have to respect living things if you want them to produce. But part of the culture change that HAS to happen is that we are awakening to our need for all the other plants, animals, and even microbes that we share the Earth with. The only silver lining in the perfect storm of problems we are experiencing at this moment in history is that, finally, we can all agree - we are all in trouble and it will take all of us working/playing together to make it better.
Doing something positive that suits you kicks in the miraculous - you're enjoying yourself so much you don't get tired (and you're more likely to do a better job). That's how I feel when someone compliments me on my "hard work" nurturing Everybody's Garden. "I'm enjoying myself," I say.
I hate to sound like an anti-capitalist, but too often the money system pushes us to do things we don't really want to. "Gotta make that money" is driving people all over the world to: cut down forests; go deeper into the oceans and ground for oil and gas; continue believing in nuclear power despite the pollution from Fukushima and a thousand other nuclear accidents; war over resources rather than find ways to cooperate to more efficiently use them; continue extincting fish and other wildlife via harvesting.
If we could liberate our imaginations (like children do playing), we could find many ways to be productive without harming. Here's an example:
Look at all that biodegradable waste we send to the trash. I was in the Strip shopping the other day and noticed in an alley a grocery's trash just overflowing with organic matter waiting to be picked up by the garbage crew. Knowing as I do how dysfunctional our waste management has become, with organic matter going to some distant landfill (at great cost for both labor and transportation)(and burning huge amounts of gasoline to get there) only to ferment to put methane and carbon dioxide greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, I couldn't help but feel hurt that we're still doing that. Years ago I queried Strip retailers about pre-sorting cardboard and other biodegradables to be composted nearby, but gave up finally when I found out that BFI had become interested in contracting to own that waste stream and had no interest in sharing the details with little old me. So, one more time, the profit motive gets in the way of good sense. Composting nearby, I knew, could be done without either smell or health hazard, saving transportation costs for a material that degrades into something with 80% less volume and so much easier to transport. But I didn't look like a business man (and still don't). It is a continuing pattern with human relations that those with the vision to see the long-term wide-angle good (including financial) for the most people are the ones who are thought by the decision-makers with the most wherewithal to be financially unwise. So here we are all these years later still wasting our organic waste. It leads me to conclude that in many ways we humans only learn, only are willing to change, when we are forced by crisis.
But trying to motivate people by fear (such as delineating how many ways the planet is in maximum danger now) is a mistake - scared people freeze up and make even worse (short-term small-context) decisions. So, oddly enough, I find myself coming to the conclusion that the way through this mess we're in is to relax and enjoy, celebrating the Earth's beauty and being grateful for what we have, letting our imaginations joyfully produce the cooperative ideas kids are constantly coming up with when they want to play.
Long years of logic, reading, and discussion have led me to the conclusion that we humans are not the only life forms with consciousness or the ability to experience love or enjoy playing. Too many times we stodgy adults have come to incorrect assumptions that are less idealistic than those of children. It is the children on farms who more often grieve at the ("necessary") butchering of animals for food. Adults so often think they're being "realistic" when they express cynicism that a better world is possible than the one we currently are co-creating. "Get real" they say when you try to tell them we don't need fossil fuels or the polluting nuclear power plants. "Good luck with that" they say when you tell them the people in a tough neighborhood can get along well enough to have a community garden in which all are welcome. Well, yes, our gardens have had problems, from vandalism to people accidentally being destructive because they don't know how you have to respect living things if you want them to produce. But part of the culture change that HAS to happen is that we are awakening to our need for all the other plants, animals, and even microbes that we share the Earth with. The only silver lining in the perfect storm of problems we are experiencing at this moment in history is that, finally, we can all agree - we are all in trouble and it will take all of us working/playing together to make it better.
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 2:29 PM
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