Have you ever had one of those moments when you realized that not everyone was on the same page? Not all on board? I had one of those moments yesterday. And then I realized that it’s because it doesn’t exist. Because people don’t read – they just wait for the movie to come out. And because I’m not on a boat.
Instead, I’m bobbing around in the ocean wearing little inflatable arm floaties. Periodically they grow limp, and I tread water while I blow some more air into them.
I’m not alone. I’m holding hands with other people who have arm floaties too. And they’re hanging onto more people with arm floaties and we’re actually a little cluster of floaty people, bobbing around on the ocean together.
It gets a little frustrating, because there are also these people on jet skis who ride around us, pointing and laughing. They speed close and shoot water at us. Then they laugh and zoom away.
I can see a cruise ship in the distance. The people on the cruise ship don’t notice our little group of floaty people. They’re too busy goofing off in the pool and eating at the buffet. I wonder if they realize that the 24 hour buffet sign is more like a hope than a promise.
But as I look further into the distance, I can see that my little cluster of floaty people is connected to other clusters, and we’re really a huge web of floaty people, as far as the eye can see. We’re a floaty brigade.
I’m going to try to remember this when I talk to other floaty people. When I expect them to be on board, I’ll remind myself that there is no “on board.” The ocean is vast, and their little section might look different from mine. My floaties are pink, but maybe theirs are blue or yellow, or polka-dotted. A few of them even have pool noodles and inflatable crocodiles. (Sometimes I wish I had a pool noodle.) But we’re all floaty people. We are all getting sprayed by jet ski people, and we’re all watching the same cruise ship, even if we have different perspectives.
Speaking of the cruise ship, I really hope they remembered to pack their life jackets.
I heart this post!
Off topic from this post, on topic with your blog, I was stunned to find that my grocery bill is almost half of your monthly cost for your whole family. Talk about another compelling reason to go for local, real food, and learn to do more of it myself… Consider me inspired!
(Relevant link for my tangent, if anyone is curious: http://www.sustainableeats.com/2009/02/23/how-much-does-it-cost-to-eat-sustainably/)
I really like your analogy! I sometimes get frustrated that there is so much needless debate that doesn’t get us anywhere and leaves people unable to do anything, even between people in the floaty brigade.
I think the real problem for the people on the cruise ship might be that there aren’t enough life jackets and seats in life boats. We will see I guess!
Thank you so much for your comment!
I completely agree with you. It seems like so much of the discourse ends up stifling action rather than building momentum. I don’t pretend to know what the right answer is, but I know we’re going to have to stop getting in our own way if we hope to get anywhere.
Also, I love your avatar!
Haha, thanks! It is a picture of an exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History. I put it in a Powerpoint for a presentation and added some effects to it and ever since then I’ve used it for my desktop pic and avatar
[...] notes, people. This kind of stuff is why people don’t like us. This kind of stuff is why I don’t like calling myself an environmentalist. And unfortunately, social media has given us the ability to be jerks in new and far-reaching [...]
[...] of us with similar beliefs spend too much time fighting among ourselves about the details. It’s the floaty brigade arguing about which type of life raft to use, like we have to pick one, like there is only so much [...]
Ah but what if your evil big brother pops your pink floaties?
[...] the face of all this disheartening news, I cannot help but remember my favorite Jess post called “The Floaty Brigade”. Are you in the water or still on the cruise [...]