Occupy your life to make a lasting difference

I have been observing and participating in the "occupy" movement with hope and fascination. Will it amount to anything? If so, I think it's important to remember that it's not what we do in the short term--setting up camps in public places, etc--that is going to make changes but it's the decisions we make every day.

When we flick a light switch in our area (Western North Carolina), we either "vote" for coal power which means mountaintop removal, polluted air and slag ponds or we "vote" for clean air, keeping the mountains and no toxic waste by using renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro-electric, geothermal, etc). When we drive our cars instead of biking and walking, we vote for our dependence on foreign oil to continue and the pollution, wars, oppressive governments and occupations that go along with it. When we have our money in a mega-bank, we vote for more mergers and centralized control of money, when we put our money in a credit union we vote for the people being in control of their money and friendlier terms. When we buy produce and products shipped from half way around the world, we vote for air pollution (from all of the fuel it takes to ship these things) and unfair trade. When we buy locally, we support the economy and craftspeople in our area.

Almost every action we take and the choices we make form the kind of world and social landscape we live in. THIS is extremely empowering to realize. We can and do create a saner or more ruthless world by our daily decisions.

I urge everyone who reads this to realize that nature is our greatest treasure. If we and all other life on the planet are to survive, we must change our relationship to resources, energy and each other. The war against nature waged by ego-centric, modern, industrialized humans will stop if we realize that we are nature and to destroy it is to destroy ourselves.

Sustainability

The infinite is my god,
Nature is my chapel,
Sustainability is my worship.

There is no lasting success without sustainability.