by Beth Terry
I woke up this morning and automatically reached for my cell phone to check my email. And then I remembered: It’s Earth Day! I should be taking it slow. Meditating. Stepping outside for a breath of air. Taking a walk in sunshine. Appreciating the Earth instead of being glued to technology once again. And then I remembered something else:
My cell phone IS the Earth. That’s where all its parts came from… the metal, both toxic and non, and even the plastic. Yes, all that plastic I’ve collected and stored in boxes under my dining room table? It’s part of the Earth too.
This week, I was happy to be included in Sarah Newman’s list of Ten Anti-Plastic Heroes on the Huffington Post. But really, I’m not anti-plastic. I’m pro-living beings. Plastic is not destroying the Earth. The Earth will be around long after we and all the other living creatures have ceased to exist. And the plastic will have become just another geological layer. But the creatures on the Earth now… we are all suffering because of the misuse of the materials available to us, and that’s why I do my work.
Suffering is part of the Earth too. I work to alleviate it because I’m human, and that’s one of the things that humans do. This Earth Day, remember that everything on this planet IS planet Earth. Even the American Chemistry Council. We eschew plastic out of love, so why hate?
