Earth Day & Cloth Napkins

I forgot that the One Small Change challenges were meant to culminate in Earth Day.  I’ve kind of gotten used to doing them.  It’s easy to change one small thing every month on my way to living a little bit lighter in the world, so  I’m glad that they will be continuing throughout the year on the One Small Change blog.

April – Cloth Napkins

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovelihood//CC BY-SA 2.0

Cloth napkins were easy.  And I like them.  I know why it took me a while to switch over, but in retrospect my reasons seem silly.  Lesson learned – just go ahead and do it.  Four napkins have been more than sufficient so far, and I’m still on the lookout for more cute ones at the thrift store.

Happy Belated Earth Day

I missed Earth Day, both on my blog and in my life.  I have a big white board calendar in my office, and all that is written on April 22nd is my husband’s name with a big arrow through the whole day.  We watched TV, ate normal food, and lost our respective battles with stress, sleep deprivation and jet lag (i.e. lots of couch napping).  Earth Day was barely on my radar.

But really, does Earth Day matter?  There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on that question.  For myself, I tend to lean towards “Maybe.”  I know this sounds like a cliché, but it is a true cliché:  Every day should be Earth Day.  We’re past the point where a day of concern is going to make up for a year’s worth of complacency.  In fact, maybe that point never existed.  Individual action and small changes need to become contagious, viral movements that result in systemic change on a fundamental level.

But at the same time, I know that not everyone is there yet.  There are people for whom Earth Day actually might be a first step towards being more aware of (and taking actions that address) the global environmental challenges we face over the next several decades.  And, unfortunately, fortunately, or just factually – the floaty brigade saying that everyone should be on the same page doesn’t actually make it true.  To a certain extent, talking about how everyone should agree with us right now, immediately, is just a waste of time.  They don’t.  That is the reality we need to work with.

And from that reality, Earth Day may well be a powerful and necessary tool to continue to move hearts and minds.  The Earth Days, the One Small Changes are the building blocks of systemic change and paradigm shifts.  Yes, it is media hyped.  And yes, it is greenwashed.  But for people who aren’t there (yet), it can be a beginning.  And right now, I think we need as many beginnings as we can get.

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Related posts:

• One Small Change: Cloth Napkins