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While waiting for a table at Wild Mountain Cafe, I heard an interesting conversation between two (also waiting) customers.
“I was thinking about buying a Prius.”
“Noooooo! Don’t buy a Prius!”
“Why? Have you read something?”
“I just can’t stand the idea. No more tree huggers in Seattle!”
“Oh, you’re not a…tree hugger?”
“No. I’m sick of them. I like my German cars.”
First of all: can’t I like German cars AND be a tree hugger?
Secondly, tree hugger?! Is this 1969? Can’t I be called something more up-to-date, like an electricity-eater or a solar-energy-cuddler?
Whatever. My biggest gripe with Anti-Trees Pro-German Cars Girl isn’t that she’s behind the times (in so many ways); it’s that she had such a negative impression of the sustainable movement in Seattle.
My first instinct was to blow her off – she’s just a priss who is more interested in whether people can tell her bag is made by Coach than whether we’ll all be able to breath in a hundred years – but that just perpetuates stereotypes, doesn’t it? She keeps thinking I’m high-minded and pretentious; I keep thinking she’s superficial and snobbish. Lose-lose.
Instead, I’ve decided to take a step back and remind myself that my cause is just that: my cause. I’m passionate about it. I’m incensed when it’s ignored by our elected officials, by corporations. I’m saddened when it’s given a mere thirty-second spot on the news before a fifteen-minute cuddle fest about that cute puppy whose owner taught it to say “I love you” and turn off the stove when she forgets.
It’s my cause…and it’s my decision to do something about it.
You may be new to eco-friendly choices, or you may be an eco-superhero that eats locally, buys everything organic and rides a bike to work. You may be somewhere in between. Wherever you are, though, I’d like you to know that I’m not judging you.
We can’t do it all, and we shouldn’t be judged for doing only what we can. For trying a little harder. For taking that next step.
Ethical living is a process. Nothing more.
Heck. Yes. I love this! Everything you say is spot on. I often have to remember when people tell me that “fashion is a vapid art” or something similar to -educate- rather than judge and dismiss. OR judge and chastise. Everyone’s brain is wired so differently that it is impossible that we were put on this planet as a species to NOT learn from each other. Otherwise, we’d all be robotic ants marching in line! We are individual for a reason, and our individual causes are our own duties. If someone would like to learn, I’m happy to teach, but I have to remember that the key to an open mind is acceptance.
Amazing post!
.-= Lindsay´s last blog ..Young, Fabulous & Broke =-.
Tree Hugging: you're doing it wrong. http://ow.ly/1qCCPm