Do yourself a favor. Go away.
I've been back from my island adventure for a couple of days now, and what an experience it was. A lot of hard work, to be sure. I have new respect for the agricultural workers who do that sort of stuff all the time. Our little group of 13 volunteers and 5 regular staff put more than 1800 plants into the ground, and set up a drip-feed irrigation system for 1600 of them. And even with all that going on, we still had time to visit some incredible spots around the island, full of weird rock formations and tidal pools, in the company of huge elephant seals and little island foxes.
(This was the logo on the backs of our orange traffic vests. Looks much better on a t-shirt, don't you think?)
I'm still processing all the stuff I saw and did, and deciding which things I want to post about. I took a few dozen pages of notes, but since I wasn't allowed to take photos, you'd have to rely on my writing everything out. But there is one thing I wanted to say right off the top.
Everyone should do something like this. Something positive, something constructive, and perhaps most important of all, something that takes you away from the perpetual noise machine.
For five days, my only contact with the outside world came from what was playing on the TV sets in the common areas of the Navy base - mostly basketball and movies - and what I could get from fifteen or twenty minutes on one of the computers in the rec center. I was not allowed to take my phone out there. It was wonderful. One night, I made the mistake of calling up Rachel Maddow's blog. It looked exactly the same as before I left. I mean, the articles were different, but the overall message was the same. And the same was true when I got home and turned on my own TV again. I mean, sure it was only five days, but you'd think something would have changed.
Yes, good citizenship requires at least some civic engagement, and I don't mean to put down the people who are staying on top of their representatives, trying to hold them accountable. But we mustn't forget that the perpetual noise machine - even the networks we agree with - depends on keeping a firm grip on your attention. Their business model forces them to present the news in a way that keeps you anxious and uncertain, so you'll keep watching, even when you have to sit through commercials. Sooner or later, that will get to anyone.
We need to get out there and do something, to preserve our own sanity if nothing else. Those 1800 plants we put in the ground are better than 1800 hours of fretting about Scott Pruitt's shenanigans. I didn't need TV talking heads or Likes on Facebook to know I was doing something valuable.
You don't have to do environmental work yourself, or go to an island, or any of the things I did. That was my thing. You do yours. If we all fulfill our own individual roles, we can all move forward together.
Find your place and go there. Find your thing and do it. Give your computer and your phone a break, and get yourself into the action. You'll be glad you did.
And by the time you get back, maybe I'll have decided what I want to write about my adventures.
(This was the logo on the backs of our orange traffic vests. Looks much better on a t-shirt, don't you think?)
I'm still processing all the stuff I saw and did, and deciding which things I want to post about. I took a few dozen pages of notes, but since I wasn't allowed to take photos, you'd have to rely on my writing everything out. But there is one thing I wanted to say right off the top.
Everyone should do something like this. Something positive, something constructive, and perhaps most important of all, something that takes you away from the perpetual noise machine.
For five days, my only contact with the outside world came from what was playing on the TV sets in the common areas of the Navy base - mostly basketball and movies - and what I could get from fifteen or twenty minutes on one of the computers in the rec center. I was not allowed to take my phone out there. It was wonderful. One night, I made the mistake of calling up Rachel Maddow's blog. It looked exactly the same as before I left. I mean, the articles were different, but the overall message was the same. And the same was true when I got home and turned on my own TV again. I mean, sure it was only five days, but you'd think something would have changed.
Yes, good citizenship requires at least some civic engagement, and I don't mean to put down the people who are staying on top of their representatives, trying to hold them accountable. But we mustn't forget that the perpetual noise machine - even the networks we agree with - depends on keeping a firm grip on your attention. Their business model forces them to present the news in a way that keeps you anxious and uncertain, so you'll keep watching, even when you have to sit through commercials. Sooner or later, that will get to anyone.
We need to get out there and do something, to preserve our own sanity if nothing else. Those 1800 plants we put in the ground are better than 1800 hours of fretting about Scott Pruitt's shenanigans. I didn't need TV talking heads or Likes on Facebook to know I was doing something valuable.
You don't have to do environmental work yourself, or go to an island, or any of the things I did. That was my thing. You do yours. If we all fulfill our own individual roles, we can all move forward together.
Find your place and go there. Find your thing and do it. Give your computer and your phone a break, and get yourself into the action. You'll be glad you did.
And by the time you get back, maybe I'll have decided what I want to write about my adventures.
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