Confessions of an Optimist

By: Misty Murph'Ariens

I want to save the world.  I know, I know...how cliché.  What a surprise! A bring-on-the-sunshine, bike-riding, braid-wearing hippie wants to save the world.  Well, not exactly.  I want to help shape the world   as we know it into a beautiful, happy, balanced place for all life—humans, plants, animals, everyone—to live in harmony.  I want to help people live enjoyably and sustainably, while creating and preserving a healthy environment and habitat for all living creatures.  What's the difference?  Well, I don't think that the world—the planet itself—needs saving.  Planets can survive some pretty extreme conditions.  Look at Mars, for instance. It's there, existing just fine at an average temperature well below freezing and is mostly covered by wind-whipped deserts.  Humans, on the other hand, are relatively more delicate.  We need a specific mixture of gases to breathe, we need clean, fresh water to drink, we survive in a fairly limited temperature range, and we rely on even more particular species for our food supply.  We need saving.  I know, this sounds bleak. While most hippies are known for 'Save the Whales' and 'Save the Rainforest',  Bryce and I have mused that there should be a 'Save the Humans' campaign.  I don't want to 'save the world' because I'm a really generous, altruistic person. I'm not.  I am selfish.  I only do things I really care about.  It happens that I really enjoy breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and having healthy food to eat.  I care about others because I enjoy living in a world with happy, loving and inspiring people.  It enriches my life to have healthy plant and animal populations in existence and I know that my health and happiness is tied to theirs. If I poison the planet, sooner or later it gets down to me and I poison myself or my loved ones.  If this doesn't make sense to you, look up food webs—they are fascinating.  I know that the scale of the world seems pretty big and your actions seem pretty small.  One little drop of poison in the vast ocean won't matter. But, don't forget, there are 7,000,000,000 people on the planet right now. (Twenty years ago it was 5.3 billion, one hundred years ago it was 1.65 billion.) Seven billion drops into that same water, and it starts to look pretty murky.  My point is, every day each person makes little decisions that add up to big consequences.  That means, the little bit of organic matter that goes into the garbage can because compost bins are smelly or inconvenient, fills up toxic landfills and deprives the soil of that much more fertility. Lost, perhaps forever, to future generations trying to grow food for an ever-increasing population.  That also means that every bit returned to the soil helps.  Every time you make a choice to do something for the better, it adds up—and it catches on.  I know it's not always convenient or cheap or glamourous.  But, it works in your favour, (slowly but surely), every time.  I don't think that I can stop global warming by my choosing to ride a bike.  I don't really believe that my shopping locally will single-handedly save my neighbours jobs. And I know that starting a little community garden this May in Holstein at the Optimist Center isn't going to instantly bring the whole world together in harmony, peopling it with responsible citizens who look to the future with an understanding of the interconnectedness of life.  But, it'll help. And, if it catches on, well...it looks pretty optimistic.