What Can One Person Do?

Outside the window, tree leaves grow out of a limb and stay within a small area during their yearly existence, subjected to wind, rain, sun and animals. Caterpillars have reduced some leaves to near uselessness as far as photosynthesis goes. A chickadee jumped and flew between the leaves to remove caterpillars for a meal so the leaves, no matter what their condition, served as feeding grounds for the bird. The tree and the bird have a loose symbiotic relationship.

The bird also feeds on the seed I place in feeders behind the house. The bird seed I buy was grown in other parts of the world, including "nyjer" seed from India and Ethiopia. When I buy this seed, I think about the infrastructure needed to grow, transport and sell the seed, and wonder about the number of birds or bird feeding grounds that are destroyed by the bird seed industry so I can feed a few birds to please my aesthetic sense of humanity.

A reader named Sushil Yadav from Delhi, India, left a comment on this blog about his thoughts on his blog, "Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment." He and I have connected with one another through the infrastructure/network known as the Internet which has its own set of industries that not only destroy bird feeding grounds but also rearranges much of what we would call the natural environment.

I agree with many points that Sushil Yadav has made. Can we ever know the true limits of human comprehension and in that same vein can human comprehension limits be increased?

Certainly, many of us have become robots in that we're merely extensions of computers, spending most of our days tethered to computer keyboards or cell phone keypads, acting as a kind of switchboard operator using complex texting as code between ourselves for connecting computer systems together, giving little time for us to feel and enjoy our emotional side.

Sushil wants to spread his message and is using the Internet to make the ideas of his message grow. He and I live in the paradox, do we not? Should we teach/preach that technology is numbing us to the wonders of a slower life at the same time that we're using technology as the medium? Somebody in the technological world is working overtime to keep the technology running, not to mention developing and selling newer technological devices to improve the Internet experience for all of us.

I thank Mr. Yadav for formalizing many of my thoughts and hope that he can prove his points scientifically. However, he and I both know that you can't stop an ocean wave with a plow. All we can do is tell those who seek a slower, simpler life that finding a place with a lower cost of living is becoming more difficult as technological advance increases the standard of living and makes itself more appealing to the masses by those who want an even higher lifestyle and are willing to sell technology no matter what the cost. Hopefully, there will always be places where one can find a cheap and relatively safe place to live, whether it's out in the country or in rundown parts of cities.

Every day I ask myself if I should abandon the Internet and cut these ties that bind me to a society that keeps growing in complexity and cost. I have no need to stop the society - "progress" seems to be an inherent feature of human social interaction. We crave newness just so we have something to talk about that's different. I admit that's why I'm here.

I am one person. I proved to myself that one person can make a difference by starting a recycling program for the pine/cedar/spruce trees people cut down and decorate in their homes to brighten the dark days of winter. I know that the recycling program is a drop in the proverbial bucket as far as the amount of trash that gets collected and dumped in city landfills but the recycling effort itself exposed people to the benefits of recycling. The trees were chopped into mulch that could be used around people's yards.

Eventually, our current round of civilization will self-destruct, one way or another. However, we can push out the day of destruction firstly by allowing numbers of our global citizens to maintain a slow lifestyle and secondly by teaching our fast-paced citizens to recycle the materials they use. In areas near where I live, farming communities are run by groups of people labeled Amish or Mennonite, small societies that do not use modern technology. Let us hope that local political organizations (towns, cities, counties, states, nation) allow these farming communities to maintain a lower tax base so that they can continue their low-tech ways. Perhaps political entities around the globe could designate similar low-tax, low-tech farming communities just as they have designated world heritage sites that create environmental preserves free of human development.

I know that popular culture will continue to build up stories about the the end of the world supposedly predicted by the Mayan calendar to occur in December 2012. I don't know enough about that calendar system to say what, if any, truth lies in that cyclical system. We know from history that humans have a tendency to overuse resources that push them to the brink of survival just as global climate cycles make survival even tougher. Perhaps there is a link between the two.

I know I've discussed this already but let's say the two systems are a fact, no matter what the timeframe may be. You are one person among almost seven billion but you have the power and strength to make a difference. What are you doing right now? How about something simple like stop buying and drinking liquids stored in plastic bottles? If every one of us took the time to reduce or stop one habit of ours, our children, grandchildren and maybe even our great-grandchildren might enjoy healthy lives on this planet.

Sushil Yadav has proved it to me once again. One person can make a difference and it starts with you!