Have you ever seen a video of people coming out after a disaster to help clean up the community?
I looked for a video that I remember seeing years ago of a city street being cleared after it had been ravaged by fire, with trash and broken glass left behind after a night of rioting in the streets. It was amazing, like so many ants moving in fast motion from far away, what those people were able to accomplish together. I couldn’t find the video, but I found a link to many still photos of communities all across America coming out to clean up after the George Floyd protests in 2020. When a need becomes a crisis and the crisis becomes visible, people come out to help.
It’s a concept pretty much summed up by the old adage, “Many hands make light work.” I don’t think any of us can imagine cleaning up such a mess alone. But when a lot of people come together with a common goal, they can do incredible things. They can move mountains.
A family with six children can have a clean house everyday. I know, we did. Every kid and mom (me) cleaned one room each, every day. It didn’t take half an hour. And after a meal or dinner, everyone did a small job: clear, rinse, load, wipe, sweep or mop. No one job took 10 minutes. Chores rotated. Everyone learned to do everything. Dad helped cook and drive. Everyone did their own laundry. No sorting.
Likewise, there is another clever concept about not burning your candle at both ends. It’s kind of a meme to help avoid burnout. It’s been very helpful to me over the past 20 years, although I didn’t realize until writing this article that it originated in disability groups. Ironically, it was only after a brain injury that I found it imperative to avoiding crash and burn scenarios. It’s called Spoon Theory.
The Spoon Theory is a metaphor used to explain the limited amount of energy or resources that someone living with chronic illness or disability has at their disposal. Your energy or resources are “spoons,” with each spoon representing a specific amount of energy or effort required to complete a task.
The more spoons you have, the more things you can accomplish during a day. However, you have a finite number of spoons, and when you run out, you’re done for the day.
www.thinkoutsidetheclosethouston.com/…
shrinkage mine
We all have only so many spoons available to us each day. Some people just naturally have more than other people, every day. Some people have more some days than they do other days. Some people have to use a lot of their spoons taking care of other people. Some people spend most of their spoons at work. Or on their kids. Some folks spend spoons on fun. Some don’t. We spend spoons on love. Or hate. It takes spoons just to survive. Some things use a lot of spoons. Anger. Animals. Or cleaning. Or looking for something. Or learning. Or exploring. Or writing. Or teaching. Or driving. Or hiding.
I know I thought I had endless spoons when I was younger, before my brain injury. But we really don’t, we have to choose carefully. It’s hard to focus on something as scary and also as inevitable as Climate Change. It’s easy to look away.
There are some amazing people at Daily Kos who use up most of their spoons every day of the week in their efforts to follow the dynamic and ever-changing environmental threats, and then to take this knowledge and attempt to educate the rest of us. They know the Climate Crisis is here. And more is coming at us... like so many steam-engines roaring down a rickety rail from the disintegrating atmosphere… down to our very own patch of the this land and sea…
I know Meteor Blades and Pakalolo must be so exhausted. I don’t know where they get their energy. I can’t keep up with even 10% of what they report on, but I know what they have taught me, and it is mind boggling. They are so unbelievably committed to sharing their knowledge and their concern. I asked them to help me understand this a bit. How did you become so interested in saving our planet?
Meteor Blades…(Daily Kos Staff Emeritus)
Who cannot be inspired by Meteor Blades? Early in my days here at DK, I was moved by his passion and commitment to environmental issues. Not only that, he was approachable and helpful and encouraging.
I was passionate about the outdoors from an early age. My Seminole grandmother often talked about the natural world; in the Muscogee language, that is "fvttv" (roughly pronounced as "faht-tah"). Starting in my teens, I hiked, camped, and hunted. My earliest activism in the 1960s was on civil rights, the war in Vietnam, and reproductive rights. But in 1973, as a result of participating in the Wounded Knee siege on the Pine Ridge Reservation, I added environmental issues to my focus. While the reasons behind that protest were many, one that most piqued my interest was the environmentally reckless mineral exploitation of large parts of the reservation, and as I later learned, several other reservations.
Along a winding path, I landed in 1978 at the Solar Energy Research Institute (now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) for three years, which gave me a lifelong interest in promoting what we used to call "alternative" energy. After climatologist James Hansen testified about the coming perils to Congress in 1988, climate matters became part of that focus on energy and related environmental matters. In 1990, I launched the original "Earth Matters" at the Los Angeles Times, a weekly package of original, syndicated environmental reporting and commentary sold to newspapers and magazines around the world. That project lasted 10 years. Since then, I've been intensely involved in climate-related activism, including through Climate Mobilization.
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Pakalolo… not DK staff, just totally committed to informing people about the climate crisis with over 1,000 diaries published.
I was born when CO2 was 314 ppm. Ocean and climate defender residing in the epicenter of sea-level rise, Fort Lauderdale, FL USA. I am not a scientist nor a journalist. I share the research of climate scientists that get zero to little press coverage.
Who cannot be moved and at least a little terrified of Pakalolo’s warnings? He’s been telling us for 14 years what’s happening. He doesn’t want to be in the spotlight, but desperately wants people to wake up.
"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao-Tzu
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Also Gardening Toad… a DK user who won me over a few years ago with her constant, consistent comments in environmental diaries with lists of suggestions and links and encouragement to get on board the Action side of Climate Change. Gardening Toad has found a way to implement hundreds of small and big actions that will help to save the earth and shares how easy it can be. Sometimes we just need it to be easier. I know I do. I asked her how she came to be so active in this struggle to save the earth.
Though I’ve been interested in Nature most of my life, I became much more focused on my own role as a part of Nature in recent years, being especially inspired by Robin Greenfield, who has devoted his life to helping people transition to a way of life which embraces the real abundance of Nature, instead of the false abundance of industrial society. Pakalolo’s climate diaries caused me to view the need for this transition with an urgency I hadn’t felt before.
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And now the
PURPOSE OF THIS DIARY
If we ALL make a commitment to
SAVE a SPOON for the EARTH every DAY
We can have a HUGE impact on this CRISIS!
ACTION
A) 10 super easy things to do for the earth every day. PICK ONE! (Something new)
- Stop buying things you don’t really need.
- Buy recycled or used items instead of buying new.
- Donate or recycle your own used items rather than throwing them away.
- Pick up a piece of trash (in public) and throw it away. Every day.
- Use less water. Shorter showers. Less often. Turn off the spigot when brushing teeth.
- Use the minimum of paper towels, buy or make dishrags.
- Become a part-time vegetarian.
- Replace your old incandescent or CFL light bulbs with efficient LEDS!!!
- Walk more. Drive less.
- Educate ourselves. www.mars.com/...
B) 10 easy household changes that make a difference. PICK ONE or TWO!
- Stop junk mail from being delivered to your home
- Only use the clothes washer for FULL loads
- Use a broom, not a hose, to clean driveways and sidewalks
- Start a compost pile as an alternative to using a garbage disposal. There is a lot of conflicting information regarding the negative impacts of garbage disposals vs throwing food waste into landfills (BOTH are destructive) but a COMPOST PILE is the ideal solution. Win, win.
- Grow a forest in your yard instead of a lawn.
- Reusable bags! Never use a plastic bag again! Buy them once and use them as gift bags, grocery bags, pool bags, totes, storage. Wash, rinse, repeat!
- Never buy bottled water again!
- Use power strips to eliminate phantom power
- Clean the condenser coils of your fridge (by simply unplugging it, pulling it away from the wall, and vacuuming the coils on the back or underneath it, you can keep it running on less energy.)
- Sign up for Community Solar. Even if you can’t have solar on your own home!
C) 10 ways to enlist others in this critical rescue effort. PICK ONE!
- Forward or share this diary.
- Write your commitment down and ask someone else to sign on to it.
- Offer someone one of your spoons. Explain why.
- Share practical examples and uplifting inspirational stories of positive change.
- Organize a CLOTHING SWAP in your neighborhood or community.
- Organize a COMMUNITY CLEAN UP in your neighborhood or a community in need. (It’s easier than you think!)
- Write a diary and talk about your own experiences, your fears for the future, your ideas...suggest solutions
- Make a poster or give a speech — explain the problem and ask for solutions! Save a spoon for the earth!
- Buy a bunch of loose spoons at Goodwill or a thrift store for a few dollars. (With 6 kids, I had to do this often.) When the time is just right, ask a group of people you like and kinda trust, if they would accept the spoon as a reminder to work to save the earth every day. (Plus, like a metal personal carry around straw, it can come in very handy.)
- Being agreeable to making an effort (using a spoon) to do something for the good of the planet in whatever opportunity next presents itself to you.
RESOURCES
Xitter Bits
Really, whatever our journey along this ecological awareness road, we cannot make much of a difference unless more of us make a difference. We can’t afford to be shy. We can’t afford not to try. We just have to do our part.
And that is how we can help Meteor Blades and Pakalolo. And the future. For our children.