An Earth Day Analogy

For this post, I am going to leave the specific matters of telecommuting and the environment behind for a moment (there are posts about that coming today) and merely address the simple issue of Earth Day.

I have spent several years advocating for positive enviornmental change via writing, research, and outreach. I believe these tools can be successful at toppling old systems of consumption and use. 

I am only saying these things so that you know that you can only get so angry with me when I tell you that I have some big problems with Earth Day.

Certainly, there is nothing wrong with the concept itself—I recognize it as a tool to generate awareness and action. But come on, unless people live in caves, it’s a pretty sure bet we’re all aware already. Still, it’s a positive day, especially since so many people get involved in local environmental activities to honor the day.

I guess it’s just that it’s too short and glancing to have the kind of impact that the environmental movement really needs. So, all day I’ve been trying to think of ways about how to communicate my sentiments about Earth Day and can only come up with an analogy, so it will have to suffice:

Think of Earth as your 90-year-old Aunt Edna who led an amazing life and whom everyone loves dearly. Throughout the year, she waits in her musty old house for visitors—especially family members—but no one ever comes to see her.

However, on her birthday every year, the whole family and her cluster of fragile old friends finally gets it together and arranges a massive party in her honor. There is cake. There might even be live entertainment. They celebrate her for all she means to them.

But when the party is over and her nephew, Rick (because don’t all old women have a nephew named Rick?) drives her home, she comforts herself with a lonely cup of tea, sets her hair in rollers, but does so sadly because she knows that now that her party has ended, everyone will forget about her and her neatly coiffed hair will go unnoticed tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day…

She knows that her birthday is the most special day of her year because it’s when her family—her children—remember her.

More importantly, she wishes they felt that way every day of the year, not just on the one special day devoted to honoring her.