CHASING DOWN THE MUSE: Mark Earth Day with deeds, not just words

It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work… — Wendell Berry

The giant yellow orb broke the horizon, lighting the eastern sky, as the full moon rose last night. Unlike driving straight into the sun, driving directly toward the moon is one of the wondrous experiences of life…for me. On this night, the far-off moon seemed to direct my thoughts toward the earth and the impending Earth Day.

Events are planned from Tokyo to Russia to Los Angeles to Caracas and beyond. These events are intended to increase awareness and promote action. Will they? And for how long?

Too many of us carry our cloth bags to the store, but they never leave the car. We change to more energy-efficient light bulbs and leave them on longer. We keep buying and producing more “stuff,” but to what end? Is there, in fact, any end to massive consumption? Are these small things enough? Just how much can this planet Earth take? As Paul Krugman stated in the New York Times in his op ed piece on oil resources, we are “running out of planet to exploit.” This is true in far more areas than drilling for oil.

Too many. Too much. Too few. Too many people with too much stuff and too few resources, natural or otherwise. What are we to do? Even if you are a skeptic about climate change, there are other alarms going out. And whatever we as individuals can do to change the way we live seems painfully inadequate to the task. Yet, ever hopeful, we must do what we can. If it is changing light bulbs to more energy-saving ones or carrying a net bag for our purchases or planting a vegetable garden or walking whenever possible rather than drive…we must do it.

Change will also lie in transformational technologies, like solar power, wind power, geo-engineering, to name a few. We must spend our money on these new energy technologies rather than on military research (currently amounting to roughly 20 times what is spent on energy research, according to some.)

Change will take more than cloth bags and walking to work. It won’t take buying more “stuff” like Earth Day T-shirts and buttons. It will take laws and money. It will take changes in the way we live. It will take vigilance by all of us, even my doppelganger somewhere down the street or across the planet, who is wasteful and/or does nothing. It will take more observance than just the one day a year set aside for Earth Day.

And so, I hope you will forgive my bending your ear one more time on this subject, days past Earth Day 2008. , Friday is Arbor Day, and therefore in somewhat the same vein. In honor of Arbor Day and in an effort to gain some perspective, after planting a tree or even a small tomato plant, you might read one of my favorite authors, Wendell Berry, who said that nothing was likely to change until the “split between what we think and what we do” had been healed.

One of my favorite poems, which I first found among my grandmother’s papers when she died more than 30 years ago, is Wendell Berry’s “Peace Among the Wild Things.” It spoke to me then and still does to this day. So, on this day, when I find myself once again in the fear fostered by noticing what we have done and are doing to this planet, I return to this poem for sustenance. The “day-blind stars” and the glorious yellow moon somehow bring a return of hope and “for a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

And I will re-read more of Mr. Berry’s words, for I believe as he does that “to cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” I hope you will, too. As Mr. Berry also says, care of the earth “is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility.” Hallelujah!

CHERRIL DOTY is an artist, writer, and creative coach exploring and enjoying the many mysteries of life in the moment. She can be reached by e-mail at Cherril@cherrildoty.com or by phone at (949) 251-3883.