[at-l] red, white and blue

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 10:53 PM 11/9/2004 -0500, Clark Wright wrote:
>most of those who want to protect don't live in the areas they want to 
>protect, and vice-versa . . . we gotta figure out how to bridge that 
>physical and political gap!

Maybe it involves learning that we can't have everything. I live in a rural 
(though not unspoiled) area. I could have lived in NYC or Boston. Early in 
life I had job offers in both places doing what I love, photography, but I 
wanted to live where I grew up and to be close to the Adirondacks so I 
spent several years struggling and 30 more in a job that I didn't love but 
that paid the bills and gave me an adequate pension so I can finally do 
what I love.

I think this country is addicted to trying to have it all. It's time we 
decided what's important and give up what's not. If the environment is 
important to us we shouldn't be driving gas guzzling CO2 producing SUVs, 
putting up advertising displays that consume more electricity than a whole 
neighborhood, the list goes ever on. If we truly believe that we need all 
the goodies our system can churn out then we need to give up on saving the 
earth and burn it up in a blaze of consumer glory instead of kidding 
ourselves that we can set aside a piece here and there and that will offset 
our gluttony.

One of my spiritual teachers said that we are always searching for what 
will make us feel whole and content. We seek that in everything we buy, the 
relationships we create, the 'right' job, that search is the core guiding 
force in our lives. Advertisers take advantage of this to sell us STUFF but 
after we acquire the new STUFF we find it wasn't what we needed. When we 
find the 'right' job it isn't long before it becomes just "a job". We need 
to learn that what we need is not found in things, it is inside us. Until 
we know what we *really* want and live accordingly the irony and the gap 
will continue to exist.