365 Earth Day’s a Year

Today Earth Day is being celebrated. I don’t feel actually like celebrating because the fact that such a day is even needed to emphasize the fact of “be nice to the planet you are currently sitting on!” shines a pretty bad light onto the current condition of our civilization.

Teaching all generations about nature, us and our impact on earth and the things which are our responsibility to take care of, this is not only a good thing to nature but also humanitarian, because with a destroyed earth there will quite certainly follow lost humanism.

I remember vividly the time I was 14 and encountered for the first time information about human’s selfish and nature destroying behavior. It was while I was skimming books at the “Exlibris” book store in Baden, Switzerland, similar to the American “Barnes and Nobles”. I was an avid reader and no book was safe from me, sucked in all information I could get, reading 3 books a week was the norm and I felt in heaven in a book store. The title of the book itself I can’t recall, but the colorful images which described the harms of car exhaust and factory exhausts – it talked about global warming… and that was 36 – THIRTY-SIX – years ago. It also talked about simple means to reduce the waste and that something CAN be done.

That day, at first full of sunshine, definitely took a turn to overcast and sadness when I realized that knowledge along will not change people. It’s a matter of personal attitude and ethics, respect for other’s, responsibility and a feeling of being connected. Some might even call it love.

Over the past few days I have been watching all the hype about this day with bittersweet feelings. There are those who once again see nothing but a marketing opportunity and to make some fleeting gain by riding on the wave. But then there have been others going really far in bringing this subject closer to their fellow man and woman. These are the ones I applaud. I also do hope that some people have received a realization today about the importance of it all and that it’s not just a by-stander thing, pretty to watch, just like a nice Hollywood movie.

Don’t just celebrate the significance of the day today, but add something to your daily life, something you’ve maybe learned and picked up today, something small like to not only recycle the obvious and largly marked PET bottles but to take the effort and to turn around smaller food containers and to check if the recycle sign is printed in maybe a not so prominent location, even if it takes some squinting. Take that extra little step to do something on YOUR end to contribute on a regular basis.

I’ve heard it takes 21 times to make something a habit.

How much love for Mother Earth do you have today? Enough to try something new for 21 times and then to possibly stick with it?