We have received wonderful, support letters and phone calls over the year about our newsletter. Every once in a while, we get one that is less than complimentary. Following is a letter we received recently.
“This is a lot of bullshit! You’re real good at writing sappy sweet articles about how you’re recycling your garbage. Meanwhile, you live in an area second in the nation in dumping toxic crap into the air and soil and within 10 miles of the most criminal nuclear act of all time. And what do you do about it? Nothing. Except this nice hypocritical shit that’s completely out of touch with reality!”
Someone read this letter and asked me why I didn’t just throw it out. Except for the intolerant tone of the letter, and the fact that the person did not sign it, the letter has a question that we need to answer for ourselves over and over again.
Mao Tse Tung wrote a book called “Opposites”, and he contends that everything we do has an opposite: One of the opposites of the work we do with IMAGO is that we are focusing on lifestyle change and the idea of falling in love with the Earth. I
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may go to a protest now and then, do a sit-in here or there, or write a letter to congress or the state legislature about the tangible issues that are threatening our life. I am also very appreciative of the people who are working on these issues; they may save my life and the lives of my children and my friends.
But what are the alternatives? How many of us are willing to turn off our lights to end the use of nuclear and coal power? Are we willing to “live simply that others might simply live” and create less of a need for the nuclear weapons being built in this country? Are we willing to withhold our federal income tax that goes to building these atrocities?
What we offer is not the idea of “cutting back”, but rather that we can live much better on less; and the belief that when we fall in love with the Earth, it’s much easier not to do things that destroy her. This, we believe, is the only way we will once and for all solve the problems that confront us. The author of the letter mentions nuclear and toxic waste; however, they are only a small part of the unbelievable barrage of destruction which ranges from the environmental to the psychological. The problems are overwhelming, and we seem so small and helpless when we try to look at the whole picture. And while we need to “think globally” and be aware of the possibility of global destruction–we need to “act locally” in our bioregion; in the areas that touch us the most.
What touches me is the possibility for humans to live so much better by holding people and the Earth as our most important priorities in life. I am touched by the belief that when we live this way, we will be happier. And at the same time, do much less damage to our Earth. This is what · touches me deeply. This is what touches many people involved with IMAGO, and what I understand as IMAGO’ s commitment.
While I hurt for the plants and animals and people that are affected by Fernald, by the toxic waste that is affecting all of us in the water we drink and the food we eat and the air we breathe, I feel a need to concentrate on learning to live in such a way, that, if enough of us are able to commit to, will eradicate the need for this horror around us, and develop a culture and lifestyle that will serve all Earthlings in a better way.
Hopefully it is by supporting each other, those who are working to stop the present destruction, and those of us working toward transforming our ways of living, that we will be able to have an Earth that we can love, and that will support us in return.
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