Today, many parts of the world participated in "Earth Hour". For those who may not have heard of this, people were asked to turn off any unnecessary lights from 8:30p.m. until 9:30p.m. (in their local time zone). All through this evening, various parts of the world are going dark..or, well, dim. Participants in the Pacific Time Zone have almost completed their "Earth Hour". Here in Boston, ours ended just about four hours ago.
In my opinion - absolutely brilliant! It's more than saving energy, people - these days there's something to be said if people are successfully united over anything. We spend so much time cultivating the space between ourselves and others. Maybe it's just the Boston culture (Bostonians are such warm, hospitable people), but it seems to me that we have practically become obsessive-compulsive about making sure that other societies, cultures, races, orientations, identities -and often other human beings in general- are as far away from us as we can keep them. No longer do we openly acknowledge that we need each other, even though we know deep down that whether we like it or not, we are connected. Why are we afraid to admit that? Anyway, let me rein my thoughts back in...
Think about a time you were in a large group of people that shared a common goal. It may be as simple as going to a concert. Generally, the concert goers share a common goal to enjoy music and have a good time. I know that I - and I'm quite the wallflower shy guy - will find myself talking to people I'd never have talked to passing by on any given day, because having that commonality puts us at ease enough that our personal fortresses slide down and we start to see that we aren't among enemies; we're just among other human beings, cowering behind excuses...and we just may, by chance, speak with one another.
I can hear you - when is this rambling going to make any sense? Hold onto your toaster strudels, here it comes...
If we can unite over switching off a light bulb, or a YouTube video of a dude doing a silly dance all over the world (which I adore, by the way, and it could be a whole topic of its own...maybe it will)....then who's to say we can't unite for the eradication of AIDS or cancer, or to establish a global standard of basic human rights or even..*gasp* peace?
If only we could stop hiding from each other...
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
