BLOG ACTION DAY!

I signed up for blog action day a while ago and nearly missed it! Thank goodness for that reminder e-mail.

I have been thinking about how much justoneperson can do to change things for the better, which is the knub of this blogspot. I have been inspired by a couple of events. First there was the news of Jane Walker the English woman who visited the Phillippines and saw the children scrabbling about on the rubbish tips at Manila's 'smokey mountain dump'. She decided to DO SOMETHING (which is also a key message of this blog......if only we all did a little then a lot would be achieved) and stayed to build a school and in doing so changed the lives of the whole community. Jane....... justoneperson did that, how amazing.

On a smaller scale I was inspired by a council worker who was paid to empty the bins along the tow path. He had a whole group of seagulls swooping round him. As I drew closer (on my bike) I could see that he was sifting through the rubbish and throwing out any edible stuff. 'You've got some friends', I called as I went by. He looked up and just quietly said, 'I try to look after them.' 'I try to look after them', is a message we can all take away and use today, this week or next month. To look after something, someone, some living creature. Or as Andrew Wilson said, 'Accept that we are living through a period of mass extinction but provide habitat for some fellow travellers from another species.' It doesn't take a lot of doing just a bit of thinking about.

I did my bit this week. I saw a ladybird on the basket of my bike when I stopped for work. Surprisingly it was still there when I rode back down the tow path home. I watched it carefully thinking it would fly away any minute, but managed to get it all the way to my back garden where I introduced it to my new ladybird house. No idea if it went into any of those holes to over winter but at least it had a viewing. Perhaps the start of a whole new colony for me. I also have a solitary bee house, unoccupied at present, which will hopefully provide a home for someone in the spring.

That's me for this week. Happy BLOG ACTION DAY

Role model?

Should I be a role model? Influence change through the sheer strength of my personality and exlemplary behaviour? Will others I meet want to be like me? How long do I need contact with another person to bring about this amazing turn around in events?

I have in fact been isolating myself which makes the above even more unlikely! I don't want to talk about 'relationships, wall paper, babies, holidays, t.v. families......' It is all so pointless! Am I the only person in my circle who thinks that the world is sick and time is running out to find a cure? In fact I realised the other day watching Angels and Demons that I am the WORST person to try to bring about any kind of social change because I am so anti-social and such an individual. Individuals never achieve anything much because it needs collective enterprise to pull off the big stuff. At the start of the film (Angels and Demons) they collect 'anti-matter' in a glass tube. Masses of individual scientists each working on their own small part, came together to achieve this feat.......... which then went on to threaten the world of course. It takes team work to achieve on a grand scale and I am a solitaire player. Look, if proof were needed, here I am now talking to myself via cyberspace.

Formula for change.

The formula for bringing about change is P+ D + T.

Persistence plus Determination plus Time. Time is the Biggy! Like turning an ocean liner all things happen s-l-o-w-l-y. And that is after the decision is made.

The formula for personal change is A+ M + T.

Awareness plus Motivation plus Time. I have been aware for about two years of the need to become a plastic bag free household. The motivation to do something about it came about 18 months ago. I still have some plastic bags in the house but am gradually changing to only biodegrable ones.

TIME is the king here and calling all the shots. Time is stronger than Persistence and wears down Determination but is a vital part of the formula. It takes time to change your own behaviour and even longer to change that of others........... how much time do we have?

Are all campaigners like the character in Shawshank redemption, scraping away at a wall of indifference with a tiny ineffective chisel. It took him 20 years............... but he got there. So can I.

Why do I feel embarrassed?

I am planning another visit to the gym today for a swim. I am meeting a friend there. It was always a welcoming place, safe and secure. Now I feel embarrassed to go there. Like I farted in the Reception area or threw up over the desk or any other thing which would mark me out as an undesirable. But all I did was persist with my campaign to cease the use of free plastic bags. I think the clue is in the word 'persist', it is rude to persist. It is the equivalent of answering back, and I did it twice. To be a successful campaigner I will have to shed these polite values and toughen up. If it were as easy as bringing an issue to the attention of others it would not be a problem. They know that what I am saying is right. They knew that the first time, but they don't want to change. No-one wants to change. It is inconvenient. So they must be 'encouraged' to change and my dilema is to find a way to do this which does not alienate and isolate me. I must find a 'nice' way which is at the same time powerful and effective........

Twice this week people I like and respect have walked into my house carrying plastic tesco bags. The 'free' ones that I used to take without a second thought just a short time ago but which now conjure up visisons of dead turtles and scenes of atomic aftermath as they flutter from bare branches in devasted landscapes. I thought............ 'No, no, no, do you know that most plastic bags are used for only 12 minutes and take over 500 years to decompose?' I said............ 'nothing.' I must learn to walk this tight rope and get my message across (more than once) without pushing people away. This is my 'oneperson' mission.