High Hopes, We've Got High Hopes

Roses trimmed. Lettuces out of their cups and into the garden. Broccoli sprouting. Pregnant squirrel raiding all bird feeders (save the hummingbird's). California poppies blooming, blooming, blooming.

And, god love him, the Golden Cat Bee (a Carpenter Bee? We're not sure) has returned himself for the Spring.

Summer cannot be too far away.

When I worked for The Walt Disney Company one day I was reading a newsletter missive from the then CEO, Michael Eisner that I've kept with me for awhile.

He said something like this, "Being Disney, we are expected by the public and our customers to have higher standards. Thus we get a lot of criticism when we fail to meet those expectations."

Many non-practicing religious people think of practicing religious folks as hypocritical.
"How can they claim to worship God when they won't welcome homosexuals into their churches? Or bad mouth each other as soon as they get into the parking lot".

And though they have a point, I believe thoughtful Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists keep those points in their minds during their days. And to stand off to the side and pretend to have no opinion on anything is a bit ludicrous. You can say you're not perfect, but choosing to do nothing about it is a bit like wishing you could save money, but spending your paycheck every week. You're basically never going to hit any goals.

The same applies to trying to be "green", I believe. I've got a friend who is a bit "greener than thou". She does a lot for the environment, she gives freely of her money to worthwhile causes, she's rid poisons from her house (and thus our landfills), cuts back on utility, water, and energy costs, and has made her landscaping business as green as they get. But, unfortunately, she's not quick at making friends because she's a bit of a bull in a china shop. When you say you've switched to Method Cleaners, she tells you she mixes her own Soap and Baking Soda Cleaner and dresses you down for going to the store and buying another bottle.

She's a bit like Frank Lloyd Wright, who insisted everyone who he built a house for use the furniture he built, which, it turned out was incredibly uncomfortable. Sure enough, when they paid him off, they threw it into storage and got furniture that made sense.

Frank Lloyd Wright never understood how to convince people without throttling them around the throat. If he'd made a stunning argument why his furniture made sense, maybe everyone wouldn't have chopped it into firewood when the going got rough.

Yes, there are high standards with going green. And yes, it's hard when there's so much bad news facing you every day telling you that what we've become, especially we Americans, are wasteful, polluting nightmares hellbent on destroying their home.

So the stakes are high, but does that mean you should badmouth your friend who drives to and from work alone in her Chevy Suburban? I don't think so.

We used to sing a hymn in church when I was a kid, "They will know we are Christians by our love." What made it so special to me was its proof in the pudding type of thought. People who get Christ's message need to strive to love one another, even though what you actually feel sometimes is intense hatred.

Maybe one day people will look at our little, old stupid Jetta and wonder, "How the heck does a family of four get along without an SUV?" Maybe they'll ask us why we don't use pesticides in our garden. Or, better, ask how they can stop using them in their garden.

Yes, maybe I'm a bit of a coward. But I don't see the point of telling my neighbor his gas lawnmower, ever minute its in use, is the same as 5 cars idling at a stoplight (which is when they're polluting at their maximum) and that's why I chose an electric one. He'll probably think, "Damn, what an ass." Then speak to me less frequently and think, "What an ecofreak!" every time I'm dumping old eggshells into my rosebush soil.

At that point, I've certainly turned myself into an ecofreak.

An environmentalist group could probably come into my house and gasp at the amazing array of plastic, PVC, and use of chlorine. But I would hope they'd be above that.

We've got hard enough work to do as is, without criticizing each other on the methods we're using to get there.

And, don't you know, there's people like Rush Limbaugh out there who'd love to see us fail miserably.

Which is sad, because if the world goes to hell, someone's going to try to eat that man.