Why should you and I care about wasting water? about if we eat organic or not? about global warming? about whether or not fracking is a good thing? about genetically modified organisms (GMOs)? about whether our car is fuel-efficient or not? or if ocean acidification is killing all the oysters (among other things)? or even give a thought to clean water starting with you and me? And what’s the big deal about reusable bags when we go shopping or not using plastic water bottles?  And what difference can it possibly make if we commit to supporting locally owned businesses? What’s sustainable about that? And why should I care about other people’s suffering & fair trade & sustainable sourcing for the things I buy?  I don’t have all the answers but I know it’s important that you and I do. Because we have a planet to preserve and people to protect and support through our own actions.

Thanks to my friend Jim Gentile for the following VERY deep thoughts about this very subject.  It’s an excerpt from a blog he found on a website from the UK and it’s well worth the read.

” Before asking why you *should* care, perhaps it would be worth thinking about the fact that you *do* care. Human beings are emotional and moral beings – we simply aren’t capable of observing other people’s behaviour without reacting emotionally and morally (though not always rightly!) to it. Because we are good at thinking, we can learn to override our initial emotional reactions and behave as detached, scientific observers in certain circumstances. But this requires an effort, even if we don’t recognise it as such.We care about other people because we can’t help it. When we cease to care altogether, we cease to function as humans. The important question, then, is how we live with caring about other people, given how painful and demanding that is.

And if we do not care – then what are we doing? I suppose we are living in a state of existential ennui, rather like that defeatist Sartre. Why bother its all hopeless anyway. The attitude denies the existence of God, which is rather like denying the existence of water – it is a magnificent denial, of course, but it is an utterly stupid one as well.”

From where I sit all is not hopeless and I feel very blessed that I care deeply and know so many others who do as well.