Reaching Into the Universe Dedicated to creating an enlightened world: spiritually fulfilling, physically healthy, socially just, and environmentally sustainable.

What does green really mean?

"Do I see anyone around me whose work is their joy, whose time is their own, whose love is their passion?"

This quote from Ascent of Humanity has stuck with me. It would seem to point to a need to go beyond questions of sustainability—after all, many people sustain their dreary work lives for decades or a lifetime—but I think it points to the need to get really clear on just what we mean when we say sustainability.

If green means spiritually fulfilling, physically healthy, economically & socially just, and environmentally sustainable, then don't issues of joy, autonomy, and passion find a place in there somewhere? Because that's the only kind of green I'm interested in.

Here is the full context of the quote:

As for my intuition of magnificent possibilities for my own life, well, my expectations are too high. Grow up, the voices say, life is just like this. What right have I to expect the unreasonable magnificence whose possibility certain moments have shown me? No, it is my intuitions that are not to be trusted. The examples of what life is surround me and define what is normal. Do I see anyone around me whose work is their joy, whose time is their own, whose love is their passion? It can't happen. Be thankful, say the voices, that my job is reasonably stimulating, that I feel "in love" at least once in a while, that the pain is manageable and life's uncertainties under control. Let good enough be good enough. Sure, life can be a drag, but at least I can afford to escape it sometimes. Life is about work, self-discipline, responsibility, but if I get these out of the way quickly and efficiently, I can enjoy vacations, entertainment, weekends, maybe even early retirement. Listening to these voices, is it any wonder that for many years, I devoted most of my energy and vitality to the escapes from life? Is it any wonder that so many of my students at Penn State look forward already, at age 21, to retirement?

Ahh, a man after my own heart.

We can't achieve the desired exterior transformations of sustainability—environmental care, physical health—without also transforming their corresponding interiors: the cultural injustices engaged in by, and bankrupt beliefs held in the hearts and minds of, every single one of us.

Everything has to change: the it, the we, and the me, the you. We cannot effectively call for change in the world "out there" without also changing ourselves and how we relate to one another. It doesn't work, which is a lesson my grandma taught me by never learning it herself.

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