Living green is making me blue
I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet lately — still blogging for gaiam.com, GreenMuze.com and healthharmony.ca on eco-topics. But even narcissistic I have been getting bored of my own stuff and writing increasingly less about green topics. Truth is, my days as the eco-voice in the wilderness are long over. These days, everyone has something to say about eco-living — some of it interesting, but much of it simply recycled (ha!) content. Honestly, how many times do we have to read about cold-water washing our clothes…or bamboo flooring…or organic produce? If you haven’t adopted a more sustainable lifestyle by now, you simply aren’t going to. Either you don’t buy into the notion that we’re hurtling toward extinction or you’ve adopted a “we’re here for a good time, not a long time” philosophy.
I’m left with a case of melancholy. A sense of defeat. I wave my white flag in the face of the SUV-idlers. My raison d’être has evaporated like so much of the African elephants’ habitat. When I was engaged in educating people about how easy and how crucial it was to live sustainably, I felt a sense of purpose. Now, I feel redundant. Like the first ipod. Kinda cute and interesting…but with a short shelf life.
In my more optimistic moments, I tell myself that there has been a massive green shift. That outliving my usefulness is a good thing — it means that what was “news” has been adopted as lifestyle. And sometimes I really believe that.
Then I read about someone flying their private plane to a 100-mile-diet dinner and I realize that most of us have entirely missed the point.
I need to resurrect my enthusiasm, my passion, my intensity. Instead of reading reports on resource depletion and species extinction, I find myself Googling Jon and Kate Plus 8. Someone rescue me from my green-living blues…