A friend asked me the other day what exactly do you have to do to consider yourself green? My knee-jerk reaction was to say protecting the environment, but luckily I stopped myself. Instant reactions can sometimes make you look really stupid.
Protect the environment? I was safe on my couch watching the horrors of homes burning during the last Southern California firestorm. I mean, I don't even know where my shovel is, let alone my protective eye-gear. Firemen protect the environment. So, what do I do? Am I just your slightly above average Joe Greenie because I recycle my kitchen waste and plastic bottles? How many green points do I get for reusing a plastic bottle or turning off the faucet when brushing my teeth? Am I that much greener because I drive a Prius? A little bit maybe. But in the big picture, these kinds of little green things won't do much for reducing lowering the ocean temperatures or cleaning the air.
So, what do you have to do to really be green? Live it. Being green is a state of mind. And it isn't just your mind, it's the collective mind. It's all-for-one-and-one-for-all. It's the community coming together to act in its own best self-interest. Those hand-made "clean the stream" signs you drive by on Saturday mornings on your way to the tennis court -- take an hour out and help pick up some trash before it washes out to the ocean.
The collective state of mind doesn't work unless everybody has a stake in the outcome.
