Friday, August 16, 2013

Choice

We have more choices than we usually are given.
Don't let others decide how much choice you have.

Sometimes,  it's not what we choose, it is that we feel we have to choose something at all.
                 We could try to get the latest and most fuel efficient car, but, then if we buy a new car we send the message to the auto industry to keep making more cars which means more finite materials of the earth mined, more pollution from manufacturing, and getting those cars distributed around the planet.  No matter what kind of car we drive, we just need to drive less, and set up our lives so to make this possible.
                   We will often be asked if we are Republican or Democrat.  There are other political forms of thought than just those two but we have allowed the situation to limit us.

Sometimes, doing nothing, is the best thing to do.
                  Instead of paper, or plastic, why not just supply your own reusable bag?  A Prius or a Hummer?  How about neither?  How about not having a car at all?  How about not using a car if you have one already?  You could be a car collector, have them sitting in a nice garage, all waxed and polished and shiny, but never drive them, maybe even put less miles on all of your cars combined than the daily commuter who drives a new hybird car.  It's not the thing as much as it is the way we think and act.

Sometimes, we have to make choices that are not conventional, but make more sense for ourselves.
                  Ideas and movements start somewhere.  Waiting for somebody else to make a choice for us is one way of living but it means that your way of being is then chosen by somebody else and may not fit you so well.  Making choices and taking actions that are unconventional are ways of being responsible for ones self.

Make the choice that gives you the most responsibility for you life.  Waiting for somebody else or for a government to make these choices for you takes the power away from us.  We fund the government with our taxes.  We staff the government with our vote.  We support the government with our voice, but mostly our actions, and these days, mostly with what we choose to purchase and from whom we make these purchases.  By definition, we are the government.  We have the government that we have bought.  This is decided every time we open our wallet, make a charge, set up an automatic payment.

If we want to see change, then we have to make changes.
                  Sounds simple and easy, but it might be so obvious that we don't see it.  No act, or inaction, is without consequence.  To be responsible and empowered, we need to be mindful of the affects of our every choice and action.