I matter but I don't

The ego is a telling and powerful thing. The actions presented in honor of the ego are often strong, positive or self defacing depending on how one feels about oneself. The problems we see as incurable, life crippling or woeful are inconsequential to others expect maybe our mothers. Yet since they are so immediately involved in the making of us perhaps it is there egos that react so strongly. With this in mind I wonder at the workings of the world and the simplicity of the statement, "I matter, but I don't." Because frankly we all matter, but we don't. And I think with a small bit of insight most of us recognize it at this juncture on our evolutionary road.


Today as our economy stumbles and erratic weather patterns threaten stability we need all our senses clear and insights tight to save our world. Delayed by 8 years of silliness and money making we are hoisted from our sleep and dragged to the cliff. They say we have 11 years until , the worst happens. Will we starve, die of thirst or crumble? I am sure the 200 year supply of water below the Paragueyan land masses owned by George W and Reverand Moon will exceed their current worth. They made fortunes off our silliness and money spending and stand to make even more since they hold title to land underwhich lies the key to life.



Yet, I anyomously sit here seeing the trends and feeling powerless to really change the slope because I don't really matter. My new favorite lawyer/teacher Elizabeth Warren a professor of law from Harvard who heads the oversight board of the TARP, undertands. She understands the tiny, the inconsiquential. She advocates for the family unit. Barack Obama "gets it" too. Michelle is vouching for him.

But I am most intriqued by Adam Werbach, a lifelong enviornmentalist, who traumatized the green movement when he announced at a Commonwealth club meeting that, "environmentalism is dead." Instead he choose to work with the enemy and to teach Walmart's 1.3 million U.S. employees about sustainability. Wal-Mart became Werbach's lab to make teach this group to make sustainability personal. The program called the Personal Sustainability Project or PSP is simple. People pick one part of their lives that seem "unsustainable" and then develop a plan to fix it. Werbach's message is we all matter and by teaching Wal-Mart workers about sustainability while encouraging personal participation the results can be big changes; changes that matter to everyone.

I take much from his example that I apply to my own life. Limit my personal carbon footprint; encourage others by example and support the larger body through small changes. And I like looking at it this way because then I matter.



See these links for information about Werbach, Walmart and Blue

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/working-with-the-enemy.html?page=0%2C2

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/EDJ7102JMK.DTL