What is the "natural" bit of this whole exploration? I could not be happy just to call myself "green." It is important but I don't want to be a green fundamentalist. I'm suspicious of any fundamentalism! This is tricky to think about. I like some glamour in life. I don't always want to watch serious TV. I don't wear much make up but I want people to have freedom of choice.
There was an amazing car parked outside our flat for a few days and it was as if a dream car had materialized, ooooh the bucket seats in cream leather. The gorgeous lines! It was a Jacquar... and I really enjoyed looking at it. If I had the money would I want such a car?
At the moment, I probably would! I might not keep it long but just to enjoy a few outings to experience that comfort and sheer physical power- yes please! My partner and I discussed this and it would be the same for him. So we had a discussion about fuel. He said that producing green fuel is harsh on the environment.
It 's one of those dilemmas that can have me scuttling for the safety of just not thinking. I love the human ability to create something as wonderful as that car and I love that the possibility exists of owning it for some people. I don't love the idea of ruling out that possibility. And I don't love the way our environment has been affected by the use of the car. It was a motorway journey through beautiful but "desouled" countryside that provoked quite a crisis in me.
Thankfully something I read in Greenspirit today was helpful.
Dr Stephan Harding writes in chapter 2
"..there are three dimensions of depth in Deep Ecology: Deep Experience, Deep Questioning and Deep Committment."
As Rilke says
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
(http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7906.Rainer_Maria_Rilke)
It is OK to be "mildly" green and questioning, "living along" into the answer. However committment and action won't happen if there is just questioning. The three processes need to be happening simultaneously, at different levels and in a way that is natural and organic.
This video has Dr Harding describe his experience as a research scientist "waking up" from a mechanical view of the natural world.
PS It's World Oceans Day today, and I got the T shirt...watched the videos too, just have to get the book!
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