Forgive yourself
During the height of the pandemic, when none of us could eat in restaurants, they were holding on for dear life, hoping they would make it through to the other side of whatever this was. My family wanted to support these local businesses, so we would order takeout online from their quickly thrown together websites.
Every time I ordered, I would stipulate, “No utensils or sauce packets,” typing it into the notes section and, if they had the option, selecting it from the dropdown.
Almost every time, I would receive multiple plastic utensils and sauce packets, which would send me into a brief fit of rage: “WHY DON’T THEY LISTEN?! I DON’T WANT THAT PLASTIC!!!”
Once my developed brain took over, I would remind myself that these restaurants were short staffed, struggling to make ends meet, and doing the best they could.
That became my representative example of the world we live in. Most people are simply doing the best they can, and most people are just thinking about getting through each day, about their own challenges, their own lives. How can you think about the future if you are barely able to make it through today?
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The people working in those restaurants were not thinking about where those utensils would end up after use; they were simply filling an order in a stressful time.
This is the world we live in. We can push for change; we can keep the movement going. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as superior to other beings and recognize that all living creatures are shareholders on this planet, but we are the ones making the decisions that affect all of us.
That is all true, AND if we keep trying to be perfect environmentalists, we are going to drive ourselves crazy and burn out. It is simply not possible.
With every decision we make, we can do the best we’re able to; we can forgive ourselves when we don’t make the best choice. We all forget our reusable water bottle sometimes, we all stay quiet on occasion when we should speak up, we do fly on an airplane even though it adds more emissions to our planet.
None of us is perfect, and by holding ourselves to a standard that tells us to be, we are destined to fail. We will be able to keep pushing if we believe that we matter, believe that things can change, and start taking steps of any kind. Just like dieting, if we go all in, the moment we make one wrong choice, it is tempting to give up altogether.
We are going to be much better off if we have 80% of the population trying their best, rather than 20% trying to be perfect environmentalists (and still failing, because it’s just not possible), while 60% pretends to not notice.
Your voice matters; you just have to try.
