Last week like many others in Vancouver, together with my daughter and her friend I walked for the global Climate Action strike. It was empowering and inspiring to see so many students marching the streets of Vancouver chanting while holding their creative signs, believe me, they were creative.
Participating in the strike was very important to me both because it lined up with what I’ve been doing for the past 9 years. AND my daughter and her friend were so pumped and excited about it too. I wanted them to learn the positive way of protesting and standing up for what they believe. But being a business owner I had a few appointments set from months before that I couldn’t move. I had to make a hard decision, and the result was not by any means ideal. It didn’t seem right but the alternative was not to show up which was not an option either. What if everybody else didn’t show up either? So I drove to the climate strike. I gave myself a hard time for it and felt like a fraud the whole time.
For the past two weeks, I thought of this decision and what was the right thing to do or not to do. I asked myself many questions like: Does this decision make me a bad person or a hypocrite? Nulls all my other efforts in the past 10 years to reduce my carbon footprint? Am I a fraud? Finally I came to the answers of No, No and No. Now that I’m writing this I remind myself that when I apologetically confessed to a friend about what I did. She immediately told me that they tried to get the bus but couldn’t find one and ended up getting a cab. And I ended up giving them a ride home, which kind of made me feel less bad.
5 Things I learned from the Climate Strike
Here is my learning from the strike itself, my feeling related to me not being able to take the transit, and my reflection on the whole subject.
- You need to show up for what you believe in any way you can
- Don’t beat up yourself over things you can’t fix, find another angel that can be more beneficial
- There are more people caring about the planet than we think
- Doesn’t matter how much you do. Every little bit counts, decide on making a small difference every day
- Life can be messy, there is no 100% zero waste option to life, at least not at this time. You need to pick your battles and make this zero waste living work for your life not what others think it should be. (more on this in future blog posts 🙂 )
So there you have it, my confession and a little bit of what I think about this whole zero waste life and all.
What are your thoughts on this? What would you do if you were in my shoes? Would you drive or just not go? Share with us in the comments. We are stronger together.
