Sunday, August 29, 2010

"Mother Earth"


My blog is titled Mother Earth, but I’m not a big fan of the term.  It’s a little too granola for me.  I’m more flip-flops than Birkenstocks.  But I am a big fan of Earth. I’m super fond of mothers too.  I am a mother. I have a wonderful mother. Most of my best friends are mothers. Many of my favorite people (men and women) while not technically mothers are mothers in spirit. Whether you are a mother by definition or by nature, this probably defines your daily actions:

mother: verb [ trans. ]
1. to look after kindly and protectively, with care and affection

If that’s what it means to mother, being called a mother is a pretty nice compliment. (Unless someone is yelling at you in traffic. That’s a different kind of mother. Ignore that person.)

When I started to think of mother as a verb rather than a noun, the term mother earth took on a whole new meaning for me. I realized it’s not necessarily a name. It’s a request, a command, a call to action. What if we look after the earth kindly and protectively, with care and affection? We can do that.  We’re mothers.  It’s what we do best.

I’ve heard the term Eco-Nazi. I am sooooooo NOT that.  Like I said, more flip-flops than Birkenstocks.  But I believe that mothers are quite possibly the solution to the environmental problems of the planet.  We have enormous power.  I think we can make a HUGE impact - one water bottle, one reusable shopping bag, one dollar, one decision at a time.  I promise: I’m not going to ask you to change your life.  I’m going to ask you to change the world.  Start by asking yourself this simple question:

What if we mother Earth?

1 comment:

  1. Whole foods now carries nylon little sacks that you can place sandwiches in or chips. You can rinse them out every night and use them over and over again. I have purchased many small stainless steel tin canisters at Elles market, but recently they did not carry them anymore. I have not used a plastic bag now for any packaging for several years now. With all the options out there to package food there is no reason to every use a plastic bag for packaging food.

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