Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Earth Day Message: Stop Judging and Love One Another Right Now
Yea! It is Earth Day!

Even Google has gone green today for Earth Day

and how fitting that we don't have any water.

Seriously. They turned off our water due to a repair 8:30AM-3:30PM (we are 13 hrs. ahead of the U.S.).

No water on Earth Day.

Is that ironic or what?

I even had to dip into my water storage to wash my hands.

Makes me think about how precious that resource is.

To honor Earth Day I want to talk about one subject.

Being Judgmental.

O.K. we all need to make wise judgments, but when it comes to caring for the earth we need to be cautious.

"Don't judge me based on your ignorance" is a popular tag line for those who care about the environment,

but at the same time we might also say, "I won't judge you because of my own ignorance."

When I see people flipping off polluting SUV and Hummer drivers I think to myself, "Are they really helping anything?"

I read about this group of eco-moms who got together to talk about how to make their neighborhood more environmentally friendly and the woman hosting the meeting got criticized because the flowers she had on her coffee table (purchased just for the occasion) were not organic.

give me a break

I love how the new advertisements for climate change awareness show very different people together united in the same cause

because caring for the Earth shouldn't be about one fringe, holier-than-thou group, it needs to be all of us.

Even with big corporations, I try to be open-minded in my judgments. Only if the company has really acted dirty do I avoid it (i.e. Walmart).

If a company isn't the greatest, but it is making strides towards better green choices I think that should be acknowledged and encouraged.

I guess the important thing is to find out their true intent and motives. Where they are going is more important than where they are now.

I am worried about how the green movement can divide people right at the same time we need to unite together.

When people find out that I strive to live a green lifestyle I get three reactions.

One is they judge me as weird, wrong, fanatical (which I am not at all) and they like me less (I am not sure what to do about that).

Two is that they tolerate me, but avoid me because they think I will judge them on their anti-green ways (Which I will not).

Three is that they are in complete agreement with me, but then the judging could potentially go back and forth because we may not be in agreement on what is important in caring for the earth. She may hang dry all her laundry, but then doesn't recycle or maybe I buy only organic or second hand clothes, but don't hang dry my laundry. Do you see what I mean? And the truth is-

that we are all trying to do our best with the knowledge and understanding that we have. We are all trying to live a good life and make good choices (for the most part)

So we need to lighten up and be friends. It is O.K. to set an example, but love others despite their differences from you.

If we isolate ourselves there is no hope for anyone anywhere. We can all learn from each other.

This applies to everything- parenting, religion, housecleaning, cars, things we own or don't own, etc.

Don't let judgments get in the way of relationships.

Be a positive example. Let your light shine and love, love, love one another.

Happy Earth Day!

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7 Comments:
Blogger Isle Dance said...
I totally get this. :o)

Blogger Maggie said...
I think it's kind of like religion. Some people who are heavily involved with environmentalism are preachy and condescending (just like a lot of religious people are). It's the "I'm right, you're wrong" ego. So I think a lot of people shy away from people with those ideals because nobody likes to be preached to.

Blogger Dede said...
Amen Sistah! Nobody is perfect and we should all just do our best and forgive each other for our shortcomings instead of looking for opportunities to put someone down.

If you were going to have to be w/o water, what a perfect day for it! ;-)

Blogger MKD said...
I like how one of our fellow Green bloggers put it on her blog after living her year as a green Fanatic!
check it out..

http://greenasathistle.com/2008/02/29/the-final-post/

Anonymous Anonymous said...
A concrete example, California sharing information and tech with China on climate change. So much better to cooperate and be generous than squabble about who's more responsible for the problem. It's not always easy to be non-judgmental and positive though. :/ I'm as guilty as anybody, but I'm working on it!

Blogger Keri said...
You've got the right attitude! How refreshing! We do what we can to stay "green" in our home but we aren't as extreme as most- and boy have we been "judged" a time or 2. It's ridiculous. You certainly cant share your experience or knowledge with anyone new when you're so busy judging them that they don't want to have anything to do with you!

Thanks for sharing your life with us here in your blog without being a green-nazi! haha. that's what keeps me coming back :)

Blogger Valeta said...
I love this post!