Global warming is a serious thing. There is much that needs to be done – so much, that it is hard to even know where to start. Everyday I learn about something new that needs to be fixed. Another crisis has erupted. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are being destroyed. And it is only just beginning. With the alarm bells blaring, it is easy to become immobilized by feelings of fear and powerlessness. Another response is to become desensitized, denying the importance or truth of information that is presented. I have and continue to use these coping mechanisms when I feel overwhelmed. But one of the few things that always works to cut through these moments of paralysis is humor. When something or someone makes me laugh, it breaks through the walls that have built up and it allows me to see things from new perspectives. Which is why I really appreciated seeing the trailer about YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip):
It really inspired me and made me able to laugh at all the crazy things we need to do to create change. It is good to find the humor in experimentation and the failures we may have on the way to figuring out the right path to take forward.
posted July 8, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Glad you like the trailer! We haven’t discussed much about the spiritual roots of the YERT project, but we did talk to a variety of people about the spiritual side of sustainability along the way, including Krista Tippett (Speaking of Faith) and Calvin DeWitt, to name a couple.
Many of the ideas for the project surfaced during meditation, too…
Enjoy,
Mark from YERT
posted July 8, 2009 at 6:00 pm
The set-up to this short clip was misleading to me; there is, after all, nothing funny about watching species dying all around us, and wasn’t interested in laughing at it. Then I watched the video and began to smile…not at the situation, but in the delight of watching joyful people look everywhere — in even the most ridiculous places [a favorite Buddhist slogan: "Do not be afraid to be a fool!"] — for the joy of solutions!
Thanks, and MORE MORE MORE MORE! … from ALL of us!!
posted July 8, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Hey Mark – great to hear from you. I really did enjoy the trailer and I hope you guys get what you need to finish and distribute the movie. I really want to see all your crazy adventures across 50 states. There seems to be so many exciting innovations going on that it is great to be inspired to do new and crazy things, no matter how weird they seem at first.
Kirsten
posted July 8, 2009 at 11:23 pm
There is another response and that is to realize that it really is not much of a crisis if the media says it is and then simply go about one’s life without giving it a second thought.